


Resident Evil 4: Gender Bender

by HappyLeech



Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Gen, Gender Bender
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-10-13
Updated: 2015-09-09
Packaged: 2017-11-16 05:07:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 44,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/535842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HappyLeech/pseuds/HappyLeech
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Leona S. Kennedy is dispatched to find Ash Graham in Spain, she doesn't expect to run into mutated non-zombies, a cult, or a familiar face from the past...<br/>(All genders flipped around)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1: The rain in Spain

So far, it had been one hell of a shitty day. 

Stuck in a tiny, cramped police car with no AC and two gossipy Spanish officers, Leona S. Kennedy was not enjoying herself. Still thought, it was better than her last mission. Acting as eye-candy for some Saudi diplomat was not her idea of a fun time, and she could have done without the extensive knowledge of the fishing industry. And, despite her numerous requests for some downtime, she'd been jettisoned off on a new assignment. This one at least was urgent. 

Ash Graham, the 20-something son of President Angela Graham, had managed to slip away from his detail while attending a campus party. This was, unfortunately, normal for the young man, so nothing was thought of it. 

Until the ransom note was delivered. 

So now, she was stuck listening to the two men up front mock her as they approached the area Ash had been known to be last before falling off the radar. Thank god for paranoid people and tracking chips. 

Rolling her eyes as the driver stopped at the side of the road to take a piss, Leona started to review the facts in her mind. It took 4 days for the random demand to be receive, and another 4 for the tracking device to be disable or destroyed. The area they were in had little to no industry, and very little contact with the modern world. According to her papers, the most common form of transport was a horse drawn cart, and the people made a living as farmers. 

So why was the President's son taken there? 

As the car resumed it's journey, Leona sighed. It was 2004, and still her mind wandered back, to Raccoon. 

_'Maybe I'll call up Clark, see what he's been doing lately...'_ she mused as the car finally came to a stop. 

Jumping at a chance to hop out of the car and stretch her legs, Leona ignored the officers as they watched from inside of the car. 

"Well, chica, this is your stop," the driver said as she approached the car, and she crossed her arms. 

"Really. Let me guess, this thing isn't a 4x4?" she asked, sarcastically, as she walked to the back of the car to knock on the trunk. It unlatched with a clang, and she quickly grabbed out her gear. 

One standard handgun, one lucky knife, and she slammed the trunk shut. 

"We figured that we'd get in the way of your....Americanisms," the officer in the passengers seat said with a smirk, and Leona rolled her eyes. 

"Yeah, sure. Just make sure no one steals the car, huh? I'm sure there's a ton of street crime in this part of the country," she shot, before turning on her heel and walking down the pathway. 

There was a decrepit house behind the trees, and Leona would have been prepared to ignore it in favor of continuing down the pathway. However... 

"...Who parks their truck here like this? I can't squeeze through at all...damn. Well, maybe someone's home..." With a sigh, she turned to the house, wincing as she stepped onto the rotten porch. 

The house lacked a door, and Leona frowned. Maybe it was the norm here, but back home that meant trouble. Quietly drawing her gun, Leona crept into the house. Even with her..."backup" outside, the gun relaxed some of her jitters. Moving past a short hall, Leona turned into the main room, before lowering her weapon. 

There was a man there, tending to a fire, and Leona rustled in her pockets for the picture she'd been provided. 

"Excuse me, Sir?" she asked, English first, then Spanish. "Sir, I'm sorry for intruding, but...have you seen this man anywhere?" When he didn't reply, Leona lightly tapped him on the shoulder, before jumping back as he scowled at her. 

"Uh...his name is Ash Graham..." she asked, weakly, and the man grunted, before shouting something in Spanish. 

"Pardon? Uh...sorry for bothering you, Sir. I'll be leaving." his accent was so thick, that Leona gave up attempting to figure out what he'd told her. 

_'He probably doesn't know anything,'_ she thought to herself as she glanced away, slipping the photo away. _'Maybe if I send one of those Policia in, he'll-?!'_

A slight movement caught Leona's eye, and she looked up just in time to see the man swing a heavy splitting axe at her. Rolling out of the way, Leona quickly drew her weapon, aiming it at his head. 

"Freeze!" She shouted at him, twice, before she clenched her teeth and shot as he moved to swing at her again. He fell with a heavy thump, and Leona rushed towards the exit. It was then though, that she heard the sound of an ill-used engine sputtering to life. 

"...that truck? Oh god no..." Peering through the slatted window shades, she couldn't see where the truck had driven to, but she did see several other men making their way towards the house. "Great..." 

_beep-!_

Jumping a little at the unexpected noise, Leona reached for her communicator. "Yeah?" 

"Is this a bad time?" There was an African-American man on the other end, and Leona sighed. 

"A bit. Haven't even made it into town and people are already after me. Are you my support?" 

"Correct. My name is Ike Hunnigan. I'll go ahead and assume you're Leona?" he said, adjusting his glasses. "And...you've already managed to make contact with hostiles?" 

"I know, impressive. But no, I approached a local, and he proved to be hostile. I was forced to neutralize him, and it looks like there's more headed this way..." she trailed off, finally moving from the window. Standing there and waiting for them wasn't really the safest of plans. 

"Right. Well, obviously I'd get out of there, Leona. I'll contact you when the feed shows you getting closer to the village, okay?" Hunnigan said, before cutting the feed. 

"Sure thing, Ike...uh, maybe I'll just call him Hunnigan." she said, clipping the communicator back onto her belt. A cursory look around the room as she headed to the stairs showed nothing in particular, but Leona did notice that the man hadn't been burning wood, but rather bones. 

"Yikes...and it doesn't look like he was a zombie either...that's good, at least." she mused and she quickly climbed the stairs to the second floor. At the top there wasn't much, a door, a cabinet, and a window. While the door proved to be locked, the cabinet held some ammunition, which Leona pocketed. 

"Sounds like the guests have arrived..." she muttered, before debating her options. "I can go fight them, or..." 

A second of quick contemplation, before she ran, full tilt, at the window, crashing through it and rolling as she hit the ground. It was then that she realized the few people in the house weren't all who were there. 

"Where's you guys come from?" she asked with a frown, taking aim and shooting. Two shots took down the first man, while the second fell victiem to a well aimed headshot. 

Backing away from the house, Leona turned and jogged back to where the car had been parked. 

_'They better have not run...'_ she thought to herself, her mind conjuring images of her being stuck with no backup, all because some cops got spooked. But, unfortunately, it was worse than that. 

"Shit..." There were tire tracks alright, but also bits and pieces of broken car. A shattered headlight and pieces of a bumper lead her to the small cliff, and she looked over into the river. Crashed onto the rock was the police car, as well as the old truck. 

The car was a wreck, and Leona had a hard time imagining that the two police officers were still alive. 

"Shit...I...damnit!" With the bridge out too, Leona didn't have high hopes for hitchhiking back for reinforcements. 

With nowhere to go but the now unblocked pathway, Leona checked her gun. "2 left... but it looks like..." pulling out the ammo she'd taken from the house, Leona smiled. That was lucky at least, managing to find compatible ammo. Gun reloaded, she started her trek down the overgrown pathway, only stopping when she heard something whining. 

"Is someone there?" she asked as she carefully walked past several large bushes, and was rewarded with some barking. "A dog?" 

A white dog was pawing at the ground with one front paw, the other caught in a bear trap, and Leona holstered her gun and dropped to her knees by the bear trap. 

"Dammit...who'd put a bear trap out like this...Shh, boy, here. Calm down..." she tried to calm the dog as she peeled back the teeth of the trap, but despite her words, it lept free and bolted as soon as she had the trap open far enough. "Wait! Oh, never mind." 

Shaking her head, she continued down the path, not noticing the three men standing on a bluff run ahead of her... 

As she continued walking, Leona spotted several small shacks, and poked her head inside of them. The first few were empty, but the last one... 

"Good god!" Leona staggered back, the sight of a woman's body, impaled and pinned to the wall, enough to make her lose her regained composure "Jesus...who are there people?" For a moment, she debated removing the pitchfork and laying down the woman's body, before deciding not to. When she was done this mission, she was going to get someone in to the area to clean things up. 

Continuing up the pathway, she slowed as she heard people walking up the path towards her. Peering from behind some small trees, she could see two men, weapons in hand. Quickly, she took aim and shot before they could charge at her. Checking her ammo again, she ducked into another shack, and into the arms of a hostile. 

With a shout, she slammed her hand into his face, before reaching for her knife and slamming it into his throat. Pushing him back, off of her knife and away from her, the man fell into a table, breaking several boxes and revealing a sealed box of handgun ammunition. 

"...right," Leona picked up the box quickly, before checking to see if any other hostiles had heard her shout. It didn't seem like it, and she quickly rushed towards a large iron gate. 

_beep-!_

Leona reached for her communicator once she was through the gate, and opened it. 

"Am I going through okay, Leona? We're fighting with the uplink right now, so the picture might be a bit spotty," Hunningan said, and Leona nodded in reply. 

"Looks like you're going through fine to me, but I'm here. What do you have for me?" 

"Not a lot, unfortunately. The village ahead of you don't have much info, so I'm afraid you're going to be on your own for most of this. Most I can do is let you know the lay of the land," the man apologized, tapping out something on his keyboard. 

"Damn. Well, nothing you can do about it, I guess." Still, Leona frowned. She hated going in blind. "Anything else for me?" 

"Good luck?" Hunnigan said with a laugh, before the connection was cut. 

"...yeah, thanks. Hopefully I won't need luck on this mission..." Leona muttered, before sliding the communicator away and pulling out her binoculars. She could see the village up ahead, and wanted to get a good look at the place before she barged in. 

Taking a moment to fiddle with the lenses, Leona started to scan the village. At first, it didn't seem to threatening....at least, until she realized what was hanging up over the bonfire. 

"Shit...it's the one officer..." she muttered, lowering the binoculars. He was obviously dead, and all she could hope for was that he'd died before being impaled... "Where's the other then? Some other disgusting display, I'd guess..." 

With a sigh, she considered her options. She could run in there, full tilt, but who knows what there was waiting in the houses? She could turn back and look for a way around the area, but that would take time...time she didn't particularly have. 

"...or I can squeeze through that hole in the fence and go around the back way..." she said to herself with a smile, pocketing the binoculars and standing. 

Slipping through the fence, Leona took her time creeping past the first house, only for her attempts at stealth to be broken when a door opened in front of her. A woman in a soiled blue dress looked at her, and they both stared at each other in silence, until... 

"Shit! So much for keeping out of view!" Leona cursed as she dove to the side, the woman having tried to stab her. The woman stumbled, and Leona kicked her, before running into the house. There wasn't much to see inside, a table and the smell of rotting food, so Leona moved to the opposite door, shoving it open and barreling over a man with an axe. 

_'where are all these people coming from?! There's no way this many people live in this dinky village...Shit!'_ Distracted as she pushed through the sudden throng of people, Leona dove to the side again to get away from a man with a sickle. He'd been aiming somewhere a lot more deadly, but missed...still, Leona could feel blood running down her neck. 

_'I need to get in somewhere and see if I can treat this before it gets really bad,'_ she though, dashing into the nearest house, closing the door with a slam. Quickly, she shoved a chest in front of the door, and took a step towards the small window. Surprisingly, the villagers weren't making any effort to follow after her, but were rather... 

"...why are they backing away." 

Leona too started to back away, her intentions to dress her wound derailed by the odd behaviour. Of course, when she heard the sound of a revving chainsaw, she understood. 

"Oh FUCK," Turning, Leona dashed up the stairs, trying to figure out how she was going to stop someone with a chainsaw. normally, the answer would just be to shoot them, but... 

"...knowing my luck, this guy's going to be on steroids, or have a third eye or something..." she muttered as she heard the door, and the chest downstairs, splinter under the chainsaw. Turning, she watched as a large man with a bag tied over his head rushed into the house, waving the chainsaw around as if confused. Leona didn't give him a chance though, and opened fire. 

After four shots to the upper torso, she turned and dove through a window, out onto the roof. She didn't want to be trapped inside the house if she could help it, and she needed the room to dodge the swinging chainsaw. 

Waiting for him to reach the top of the stairs and chase her out onto the roof, Leona was disappointed to see him...walk right past the window in total confusion. 

"Oi! Ugly, over here! Come on, moron. Didcha trade your brains in for that chainsaw?" she finally yelled, taking a quick shot as he walked past the busted window again. "Come on, come and get me, you ugly fucker!" 

Her stray shot hit, or maybe he'd finally heard her, and he barreled through the rest of the busted window at Leona as she shot. It was easier to keep moving on the tin roof, and after two full clips, the man finally stumbled and dropped to his knees. Reloading with the last 4 bullets she had, Leona waited with bated breath to see if he was going to struggle back to life or if he was truly dead. 

After several seconds, the only noises she could hear was the angry chatter of the villagers that surrounded the house, and she let herself believe that the man with the chainsaw was dead. 

_'Which IS good, but there's still all these people here trying to kill me...'_ Leona backed away from the edge as an axe was thrown in her direction, and frowned. She didn't have enough ammo to kill all of them, and she wasn't sure she'd even want too... 

As she contemplated jumping down and fighting her way through with her knife, there was a loud noise. 

"Church bells? Who's ringing those?" she asked herself, frowning. Obviously there were still more people in the area... 

However, her need to fight the villagers dropped to zero as they began to walk away, dropping their weapons behind them as they moved, single file, to a small building. Bewildered, Leona watched as they all abandoned the fight and she was soon left alone on a roof, the body of the hooded man and the discarded farming tools the only trace that she'd been swarmed earlier. 

"...what the fuck is going on here?"


	2. Chapter 1.5: Aden's story prt 1

Aden Wong was enjoying a day off, catching up on a months’ worth of newspapers, taped television, and paperwork with his cat Mint, when his computer beeped at him. He pressed the space bar to bring the monitor out of sleep mode, and was momentarily disappointed to see Anne Wesker’s face, instead of his three episodes of Storage Wars. Never the less, he pasted a smile on his face, and greeted his boss.

  
“Ah, Wesker. How are you today? Is this about the paperwork, because I almost have that done…”

  
Wesker’s face didn’t change from her perpetual scowl, and she didn’t try to continue with the small talk. “The paperwork can wait. I have a new mission for you. I’m sending you the perimeters for it now. Be ready for extraction in 30 minutes.”

  
With that the screen went black, before popping up with his list of recorded shows and a download link for the mission files.

  
“But it’s my day off?” Aden weakly protested, as the mission files downloaded to his desktop. “Ah well….It’s always work with Anne, isn’t it Mint? I wonder if it’d kill her to exchange some chatter with me…”

  
He sighed and opened the encrypted document. “Hmm… Looks like Karuser’s have issues completing the mission by herself. Perhaps Sadler isn’t as trusting of her as she’s reported.” That made Aden chuckle, because Krauser had been boasting that Saddler trusted her with everything, and the operation was almost over with.

  
“Oh, now that’s interesting…When did they kidnap the president’s son? You’d think we’d be hearing about that….Now I assume they’ve sent someone to retrieve him…Ah, here. ‘Agent Kennedy had been sent to retrieve Graham. Do not let them know you’re there. If needed, take them both out, as Kennedy is a survivor of Raccoon and could be detrimental to our plans.’…”

  
Aden sat there a moment, not expecting that name to jump out of the file at him. After the…embarrassment that was his mission in Raccoon, He had done what he could to forget the rookie cop, but it seemed that fate, and Wesker, had other plans.

  
“This is going to be much more interesting, and difficult, than I previously thought.” He copied the mission directives to his hand-held communicator, and slinked out of the room to prepare.

  
\--

  
When Aden stepped into Wesker’s office after a short flight, she turned to him, perhaps to admonish how long it had taken for him to get there, but decided to just shake her head.

  
“You are aware that this mission you are going on is of the utmost importance, not some state dinner party. But if that is what you’re wearing, then I won’t stop you. You’re transport is on the roof, don’t disappoint me.” She then turned back to her work, and Aden got the hint to get moving.

  
Right before he entered the lift to the roof, he turned back. “I’ll contact you once I’m in the village then?” Wesker just grunted, and Aden left, unsure if that was a yes or a no.

  
Reaching the roof, he climbed into the helicopter, and smiled at the confused pilot.

  
“Wake me up when we get there.”

  
\--

  
Aden had managed to get a decent sleep, and woke easily when the pilot called out, to tell him that they were almost above the village.

  
“Do you have everything you’ll be needing, sir?” The pilot sounded unsure of his question, and Aden realized that the man was confused about his attire.

  
“Oh no, I’m completely outfitted. I just think it would be better to go in this. Much more comfortable than the military grade uniforms you all wear. It doesn’t mesh well with my personal style.” Aden just smiled, knowing that his ‘explanation’ did nothing to dispel the pilot’s confusion.

  
“…Right. Anyways, we’re here. Once you’re in, the only person you’ll be able to contact will be the boss. Good luck.” The pilot turned back to the controls, steadying the machine so Aden could jump out. He opened the door and dived, using his grapple hook to slow his decent. He ended up on the top of a house, and after jumping down was immediately set upon by two villagers.

  
Aden merely smirked, pulling his grapple gun back out and running past the two whilst firing. The pair of villagers looked momentarily confused, before Aden pulled the trigger, tripping them up and sending them into the wall. He was about to move into the main square, when his communicator went off.

  
“I trust you’ve reached the village then?” Wesker said as she shuffled around some papers. Even though technology was becoming more and more prevalent, Wesker still used paper copies for most things.

  
“Oh yes. But nobody has bothered to come and meet me. What a disappointment. I suppose this meant you were planning on calling me then, instead of visa versa.” He chuckled.

  
Wesker just shook her head, and continued speaking. “These… ‘Ganados’ attack anyone from outside the village on sight. I have it on good authority that ringing the church bell will shut them up though. Anyway, you have your mission. Find the scientist, obtain the Plaga sample. That’s it. Once you have that we will be done in this wretched part of the world for now.”

  
This caused Aden to raise an eyebrow. “What about Krauser? Shouldn’t I be assisting her?”

  
“No. At this point she’s become a liability. What she does now is not our concern.” With that, Wesker cut the connection, leaving Aden standing alone beside a bunch of bodies.

  
“A liability, huh? I’ve been saying that from the start, you know…”

  
He started to move, shoving the bodies out of view, when he heard gunshots. Peering out from around the side of the house, his breath hitched, recognizing the shooter.

  
“Leona…” He watched her fight off the mob of villagers, only moving once she’d entered a house. He darted out into the center of town, trying to find his bearings. Hearing the sound of a chainsaw, Aden grappled on top of a different house to get away.

  
‘I’m sure she can handle…whatever that noise is going to be.’ He told himself, before noticing something glittering across the roof from him.

  
“A key. And lucky me, it looks like it goes with that door over there. And if these papers are correct, that’s the house over the secret path to the church.” Aden jumped down, and quickly entered the building.

  
He’d tried to lock the door from the inside, knowing that Leona would check the building when she was finished out in the main square but wasn’t able to, and almost shot the girl standing in the room with him when he turned around.

  
The girl seemed to brush off the gun aimed at her and instead swept open he long coat, showing off an impressive array of weapons and ammunition.

  
“Ello Stranga. Care ta buy anythin’?”

  
“…What?” Aden wasn’t feeling very eloquent at that moment, and instead chose to stare at a young woman who was trying to sell him things.

  
“Buy somethin’ Stranga? I’ve a good selection…” She gave him a bemused look. “Real cheap.”

  
“Ahh…But you see, I have no money,” he shrugged, still holding the key.

  
“Ah, but the villagers have money…Just use theirs.”

  
“Oh? And will I have to return here then? Because you see, I’m on a rather tight schedule.” He opened the other door and looked around the corner, trying to appear disinterested.

  
The look she gave him was of pure ire. “Stranga, if you want to buy somethin’ I’ll be near.” She shook her head then, before focusing on the key.

  
“What are ya goin’ to do with that key? You need ta leave it for the other Stranga?”

  
Aden turned to the girl. “Actually yes…How did you know?”

  
“It’s a secret.” The girl giggled, before holding out her hand. “If you give that to me, I can make sure it goes somewhere where she’ll find it, long after you’re gone.”

  
Aden considered his other options, which weren’t all that great, before handing over the key.

  
“Don’t worry Stranga, I’ll make sure she finds this.” The girl pocketed the key as Aden nodded and went into the short hallway.

  
He lifted up the trap door, and decided to forgo the ladder jumping down instead. He began to walk down the stairs, but picked up his pace when he heard shouting from above, realizing that there were some villagers coming after him. Right before he reached the bottom though, he stepped on an uneven stair and went flying, crashing into the inch of water that filled the tunnel floor.

  
“Uhg…Ow…” He sat up, hand to his head, and cursed. There was no way now that he could out run his pursuers. He wiped the water off his face and slowly stood up. He could see the feet of the first man coming down the stairs and took aim. He shot, and the man fell, three more taking his place.

  
After his pursuers were dead, Aden took time to riffle through their pockets, grimacing every time he touched a particularly nasty spot on or in their clothing. His effort paid off though, as he ended up with two flash bangs and 1500 Pesetas.

  
“Hm, I though Spain had changed to the Euro already. Maybe this place is so backwards they don’t want the change.”

  
He continued to walk, grimacing as the water leaked into his shoes. ‘Perhaps I should have worn boots for this job… Oh well, no turning back now, unless I steal some boots from the villagers…’

  
As he walked towards the end of the tunnel, he noticed several boxes sitting in cubbies carved into the wall.

  
“Hmm…” He moved over to them, pulling out his knife and breaking the box open. He just stared at what was inside, before slowly shaking his head.

  
‘I should have known…These people are insane, leaving money and ammo lying around like this. Well, whatever, it helps me out.’ He picked up a small box of handgun bullets and 50 Pesetas before entering the next part of the tunnel, and almost had a heart attack.

  
“Gah! ...Gah?” He stood in the doorway and pointed at the girl…The very one he just saw in the room with the trap door. Who shouldn’t be here because she should have been there!

  
The girl just giggled, and swept open her coat again. “Ello Stranga, whatcha buyin’?”

  
“What the fuck, how did you get down here? I just saw you up there!” Aden had seen so much odd things in the little time he’d been in the village, but this had taken the cake and eaten it too.

  
“Haha, that’s a trade secret, Stranga.”

  
“Hng…” Aden just closed his eyes, and accepted that the merchant girl was some sort of magician. “What could I get for this?” He pulled out the money he’d collected, around 1550 Pesetas.

  
She shook her head though. “Not enough cash, Stranga.

  
Aden just stood there, staring at the girl, before shaking his head and leaving the absurdity behind. He climbed a ladder, and came out right next to the church graveyard. Two women with pitchforks appeared as Aden started to walk towards the church, and he smiled as he shot them both in the head.

  
“Sorry ladies, but I have a job to do.”

  
Picking up another grenade from one of the women, he continued his walk up to the church. Reaching the door, he noticed that there was an indentation where a circular emblem went.

  
“Ah, locked and not a single pickable lock in sight. I suppose I need to find the key.”

  
He continued to walk around the church, trying to find a window to grapple too or a door to kick in, but instead found the emblem locked in a tiny courtyard.

  
“Ah, a puzzle. Let’s see if I can get this…”

  
He fiddled with the buttons on the front of the pedestal, and after a few moments heard a click.

  
Aden picked up the disc, recognizing it as the key to the church, when two villagers entered the courtyard. Startled by their sudden and quiet appearance, he dropped the disc and barely had time to ready his gun.  
As the two people, a man with a hatchet and a woman with a pitchfork, started walking towards Aden, a small but sturdy looking gate sprung up from the ground, effectively blocking any chance, not that he had one to begin with, of escaping the small, walled, outdoor garden. With his back pressed to the pedestal, Aden had no room to back up, and with the pair closing in, opened fire on them. The woman fell first, screeching at first, but eventually her screaming turned into background noise, before falling quiet. The man, however, proved to be more difficult to kill, with him chucking the hatchet at Aden every time he had a chance. He fell too, and Aden stood in the courtyard, slightly winded and very annoyed.

  
Wiping off a splatter of blood that had managed to hit his face, Aden picked up the disc he had dropped when the unwanted villagers had paid him a visit. He moved to the gate, and gave it a shake, but it would not budge.

  
“Hm, so it probably has something to do with this disc. I wonder if I put something in its place if it will open.”

  
He tried several items trying to get the gate open, a rock, some bullets, and his shoe, but to no avail. Putting the disc back did open the gate, but that was no good. He finally gave up trying to weigh it down with what was in his pack, and placed the disc back, but not before noticing a smaller indentation.

  
“I must have to put something specific in there to take the disc.” He put it back, and went hunting for something that would fit. A quick survey of the graveyard and church yard revealed nothing, and Aden was left with nowhere to check but the path leading to the lake.

  
At the end of the dirt path was a rickety, unsafe looking bridge, spanning the side of a cliff. Peering ahead, Aden could see gaps in the bridge, where planks had obviously fallen or rotted away. He could also see several pairs of feet, and began to weight his options.

  
‘I could attack them head on, but then the chances of me falling are greater than if I just tried to get them to fall off…’ Ducking down, he began to move slowly towards the walkway. When he got close enough to see one pair of feet, Aden steadied his gun and fired. As he’d predicted, the owner of the feet plunged down into the water, and as he sprang up, another person, a woman in a soiled blue work dress, began to advance. As she slowed to attempt crossing the large gap in the walkway, Aden took careful aim and his shot sent her over the edge.

  
Now that his way was clear (for now, at least) Aden stepped out onto the bridge. Jumping over the large gap in the boards, he spotted a small shack, and peered in. Spying no immediate enemies, he walked fully into the one roomed hut. Spotting more boxes, he immediately pulled out his knife and smashed the one sitting on the dilapidated table, and immediately recoiled as the curled up snake that was hiding inside leapt at his face.

  
“Ahrg! Fuck! What the hell?!” Aden stumbled out of the hut, distractedly walked several feet down the walkway, almost fell through another hole in the bridge, and when the sounds of a chainsaw reached his ears he blanched.

  
“Oh no…” He looked up, and started to back away. A woman, with dirty bandages wrapped around her face, wearing an equally dirty outfit, was advancing, holding an old, running chainsaw, flanked by two other women, both wielding knives.

  
“Uhh…Ladies! Looking lovely today, who does your make-up?” He tried to catch their attention, tried to distract them, but they were having none of his foolery. They instead sped up, the woman with the chainsaw moving twice as fast as the pair with the knives.

  
Aden began stepping back, trying to lure them closer to the gap, hoping to shoot them down. The woman with the chainsaw paused at the gap, looking at it, as if trying to figure out if she could make the jump. The knife twins, as Aden began to call them, however, didn’t stop to look, and as they attempted to leap over the hole, he shot them down, sending them into the water below.

  
“So…Only you and me, huh? That’s ok, I don’t mind it. Your friends were sorta third and fourth wheels anyway.” Aden nervously chattered, trying to distract the chainsaw wielding woman, as much as he was trying to calm himself. As he backed up some more, the woman finally decided that there was enough room for her to cross, and she took a running start, jumping over the gap with ease, and Aden gulped.

  
“Hehe…Ohshitohshitohshit!” He bolted, trying to put more distance between her and him, and leapt over the first flaw in the walkway. Rolling, he turned and opened fire, his handgun jolting every time he fired. But still she was getting closer. She flinched with every shot, but anything less than a shot to her head didn’t seem like it did much damage. He kept running backwards, keeping an eye on her as he re-loaded his gun.  
“Shit…What’s it going to take to take you down!?” She charged at him, jumping the gap and causing Aden to squeak like a girl as she rushed him. Just as she was about to reach the minimum distance for head chopping, he pulled up his gun and shot. It was a shot of faith, one he didn’t expect to work, but it did. The body of the deranged woman thudded on the ground, and after some time, Aden crept over and shut the chainsaw off before throwing it down into the lake. Still shaking from his close encounter, Aden looked back to where the dead woman was laying.

  
“She must have been guarding something…It has to be important…” He began to creep along the boardwalk, cautiously watching for anymore surprises that might jump out at him. Reaching the end, he breathed a small sigh of relief, glad to be off the rickety structure. Noticing something glittering on the ground, he crouched so he could get a better look at it. Not satisfied, he picked it up, and, straightening, held it up to the sky so he could see it better.

  
“Looks like a Cats eye? Now what is this doing here?” Pursing his lips, he pocketed it, along with the small amount of money he’d pilfered from the chainsaw lady’s body. Trying the door, he was annoyed to find it locked.

  
“Then what was she guarding, if not the door? Did I miss something?” He frowned, before reaching into his pocket.

  
“No…It can’t be.” He pulled the Cats eye out of his pocket, and gave it a second look. “Is this what she was trying to kill me to protect? Why?” Then, a thought hit him. The small indent in the church’s courtyard.  
“…But will it work?” He muttered to himself as he turned and began to walk back to the small area. Reaching the end of the path, Aden climbed the slope to where the church was, only to be attacked by several villagers, who seemed to appear out of no where.

  
“Oh, for Gods sake! I…Am…Not…Up…To…THIS!” He slammed his fist into the one villagers face, and swept another off his feet with a kick. Two taken care of, he shot the last two, and began to go through their pockets. Finished with that, he turned down the path to the pedestal with the disc.

  
“I swear…If this doesn’t work…” Aden growled under his breath as he removed the disc, and placed the Cats eye inside the indentation. For a moment, the gate stayed up, but slowly, sunk back into the ground.  
“Thank God. Now to get in there…If I ring the bell, that will calm and distract the villagers, leaving Leona safe…”

  
Tromping back to the church door, Aden fit the disc into the hole in the door with little difficulty. Pushing open the door, he found it to be deserted.

  
“Hmmm…I guess they all rushed out of here to get to me…But you’d think there would be at least one person left inside…” Walking towards the alter, he spied a man walking on the second floor. “Guess I wasn’t wrong. Better be quiet so he doesn’t notice me…”

  
Reaching the front, he surveyed the area. “Nothing of too much importance here…I’d better check the cabinets…” Opening them, he groaned to himself. “Of course. If the villagers are going to carry around loads of outdated currency, and are going to save their grenades for me, then why wouldn’t they store all their hand gun ammunition in their church?” Shaking his head, he pocketed the ammo, and turned to find the ladder to reach the second floor. What he found though, was a man with a hatchet.

  
“…” Aden un-holstered his gun and calmly shot the man. “So much for my element of surprise…” Deciding to not go through the man’s pockets in case more enemies appeared, Aden instead climbed the ladder and started looking for the mechanism that operated the church bells. Realizing that the man he’d shot had been the same one he’d saw upstairs, he calmed down and began to explore freely. Walking past the only door, he could hear tense, quiet breathing, and realized that the president’s son must be in the room.

  
‘Oh well, it’s not MY job to rescue him…I’ll leave that to Leona.’ Creeping past, so the young man inside wouldn’t hear him and call out, Aden reached the other side of the room. Eyes falling on a control panel, he smiled.

  
“Now this must control the bells. Now, how does this work?” Pushing the main button, the largest one on the panel, caused three coloured lights to shine, and Aden groaned. The puzzle outside wasn’t particularly hard, but this one looked complicated. He hadn’t had to do one like this since that time in Raccoon…

  
Eventually, he wrestled the lights into their proper location, and activated the bells. Listening to them ring, he slumped down against the wall, tired again.

  
“Finally…I wonder if there’s a place around here I can take a rest?” He mused as he listened to the bells and villagers combined.


	3. Chapter 2: No talking Lions here!

As Leona started to move after the villagers, her communicator beeped.

  
“Leona, are you there? We’ve got some more information for you.” She held up the communicator as Hunnigan continued talking.

  
“I’m here. What do you have for me?”

  
“We’ve received info that Ash is being held in the church. Also, we’ve got some topographical maps that show there’s some sort of underground passage somewhere in the village. The maps are from fifty years back though, so we’re not sure if the entrance is even located in the same building as before.”

  
“Well, I could go and check if you’d tell me which building it is?” Leona suggested.

  
“Good point. According to this, the passage is underneath a building next to a tower of some sort.” Leona nodded.

  
“I see something like that. I’m going to check it out.” She didn’t close her communicator, but moved cautiously to the building in question. She tried the door, but sighed.

  
“It’s locked, which probably means that this is the place. And it looks like the lock is too complex to pick. There’s no other way to reach the church?” Leona asked.

  
“Well, there is access from the lake, but it doesn’t look like you can get there from where you are. There is what appears to be a gate at the end of the path behind that tower. The maps we have all have that area beyond that labeled as farmland. I’d check that out, see what’s there.” Hunnigan pulled something up on his computer as he talked, double checking his information.

  
“Ok. Thanks Hunnigen. I’ll give it a look. I’ll get back to you if I find anything.” With that, Leona shut the communicator with a snap.

  
“A church…I hope this doesn’t have anything to do with a cult. I’ve had too many bad experiences with those sorts of people lately.”

  
After a quick poke around the other houses in the village, Leona found several small boxes of ammo and a shotgun shoved haphazardly in a closet. She shook her head as she took it, holstering it on her back. Satisfied that she’d looked everywhere for the time being, Leona moved up the path and shouldered open the gate, creeping into the farm yard.

  
Upon her entrance, she noticed at least three men in the area, moving hay with pitchforks. Wondering why they hadn’t dissipated after the church bell had gone off; Leona spied a small shed that she rushed into, trying to avoid being spotted. Backing further into the shed to formulate a plan of execution, she accidently bumped into a table, knocking something to the ground. A quick look revealed that it was a typewriter, but Leona had no time to check it out as she had the feeling that the hostiles had heard the commotion as well.

  
A cow mooed as the men started to stalk towards her hiding place, but Leona calmly leaned out of the doorway and took aim at them. Six shots took down the three men and she took some time to breath. At first, all Leona felt was stressed, but after an hour in the bazar place, she was starting to get used to it. It didn’t explain the weird things she was finding though.

  
‘Ammo in boxes and typewriters in farmyards… It feels like I’m playing some sort of game and no one’s bothered to explain the rules.’

  
Leona did a quick survey of the area, looking to see if there were any other people, but only really noticed a sheet of blue paper stuck to a tree. She stepped over the bodies, hopped over a low fence, and tore a blue sheet of paper off the tree once she was satisfied that no one else was going to jump out at her.

  
“‘15 medallions, 7 in the farm, 8 in the cemetery… Destroy 10 and receive a…gift’…” Leona looked at the paper, confused. “Whoever put this up wants people to destroy medallions? Are they trying to make this like a game, because that makes no sense. I doubt anyone here but me can actually read. Not to mention this is written in English. This is getting more and more far-fetched as I go on…”

  
She pocketed the sheet and moved towards the farmhouse. Her training kept her from entering through the front door and a careful peak through a window commended her on her choice.

  
‘Who the fuck puts bear traps in a house?!...Well, I guess these people aren’t really in the right frame of mind…’ She sighed and shot at the pressure plate through the window, springing the trap. She then jumped through, and walked over to a ladder that was laying on the floor. As she bent to hoist it back up, she heard someone coughing from above. Carefully setting the ladder back on the floor, Leona backed up looking for the source.. Standing on the tips of her toes, she could just barely see a man, his back to her, muttering to himself and shovelling hay into a corner.

  
She wondered why he didn’t seem to have noticed her shooting the bear trap, when she got the funny tickle that signified that she was about the sneeze.

  
“Atchoo!” Leona slapped her hand over her mouth, silently hoping that the man above wouldn’t notice, like he didn’t with the gunshot. Unfortunately, he did, and turned around while making a sound that Leona would have identified as a roar, if she wasn’t dodging the pitchfork the man had thrown at her. It clattered to the ground as the man jumped down from the loft, but before he had the chance to attack her again, Leona took him out. Satisfied that the man was dead after two shots, she pushed his corpse away from the ladder that he’d landed on. As she did so, something rolled out of his pocket.

  
“A grenade? Why would someone who worked on a farm need a grenade? Unless the cows turn militant or the chickens revolt…” She trailed off, scanning her surroundings. “It doesn’t look like there’s anyone else around.”

  
After a careful look around the room, she hoisted the ladder up and climbed to the hay loft. From her spot in the hay loft, Leona looked out of a window and spotted something blue glittering in the light over near the barn.

  
“Hmm, is that? …It could be…” Talking to herself, she jumped back down from the loft and walked over to the barn. “I think that could be a medallion? Lets see…” Taking aim with her gun, after another sweep of the area, she shot through the hook holding the blue glass disc up, catching it before it hit the ground. Holding it up to the light, Leona could see a sort of pattern, but, unable to determine what it was, she just pocketed the disc. “There were 7 in the farm, right? Shouldn’t take me that long to find them…” She then started looking, and it didn’t end up taking her that long, even though some of them were in awkward locations.

  
Soon, Leona found herself standing in front of a large gate, 7 tiny blue discs in her pocket, wondering if that was in fact the only way she could go. She had tried the other gate as well, finding it locked, but found herself unwilling to continue through the opened one. Something about the next area seemed off to her, gave her a bad feeling.

  
“Well, I don’t really have a choice. This looks like the only way to go that’s open.” The gate opened with a loud creak and bang as she pushed against it, causing Leona to wince.

  
‘Man…Well, if anyone was down there, they’ve probably figured out where I am now…’ She stepped through, not closing the door because, really, why do something like that if there was a possibility that you’d need to open it again?

  
Right away, she noticed a red post with skulls tied to it, giving her the impression that someone didn’t want people coming this way.

  
“Creepy…but not creepy enough. I’ve seen worse, that’s for sure.” She started walking forwards past the post, but stopped after a few steps. Leona could hear something creaking, and watched as several rocks and pebbles rolled down from the cliff above her. “Who’s there?! I can hear you…”

  
Several tense minuets went by, before Leona moved forwards again, mistrustful of what was ahead and above her. She was about 15 steps past the bloodied sign post when she heard rumbling. Looking behind her, Leona paused for a nano-second, almost not believing her eyes, before she bolted.

  
The creaking noise had been someone pushing a boulder. A fucking god-forsaken boulder was rolling down the steep hill after her, and the only place she could go was down the stairs to the end of the path. She could feel it bearing down on her, and as she leapt to the side of the path into an offshoot, it crashed into a tunnel and shattered into pieces.

  
Swearing, she stood and turned, her knees and palms of her hands bleeding. Today was not turning out to be a good day for her, but Leona just patched herself up before she shook her head and cautiously began walking through the tunnel.

  
Bats screeched as she slowly walked through, brushing past her and bringing her attention up to the top of the tunnel. Something sparkled, and Leona moved underneath it so she could take a closer look at it.  
“...Right. Of course. I mean, where else would the Spanish hide their sparkly things?” Leona shook her head again, and reached up. She could barely reach the top if she stood on her toes, so she pulled out her knife and pried the sparkly stones out of the rock. After weighing the few rocks that fell in her hand, she unconsciously shoved them into her pouch. She kept an eye out for more of them as she walked through the rest of the tunnel. As she reached the end and stepped out into the sunlight, something exploded.

  
Startled, Leona rolled backwards into the tunnel, and swore as she peered out, trying to locate the source of the explosives. A quick survey of the area revealed to Leona that the explosives were being thrown by a man in a ramshackle house and there were trip wires and bear traps everywhere.

  
“Oh for the love of god...what is it with these people and bear traps?” She sighed, and slowly creeped out of the tunnel, trying to draw the attention of the man with the explosives without allowing herself to be harmed. She made her way to the nearest tree, which looked like it was barely alive, before another explosive went off. Leona just narrowed her eyes and took aim. With a small amount of difficulty and several shots, she managed to kill the man and hopefully stopped the explosions. Just as she was about to stand and move further into the area, another man appeared at the window where her pervious murderous fan had been throwing things at her.

  
“What the fuck? God damn it...there is no way that this tiny stinking village has this many people living in it...” Knowing what to expect, Leona easily shot the other man down. Satisfied that no one else was going to try and attack her for the moment, she set off the trip wire and bear traps, before moving slowly towards an intimidating house that stood with its back to a large, dense forest that looked very uninviting.  
Standing on the decrepit porch, Leona looked behind herself, before kicking the rusted lock off of the door. The door fell off its hinges, clattering to the ground as she stepped inside. The front room was even more in shambles than the porch, and the only thing of any interest was an old table sitting in the side that had another old typewriter sitting right in the middle of it. She glanced at it, but decided against investigating. It wouldn’t do to knock another one off of a table and alert everyone that she was here.

  
She walked through the hall to the next room, and almost walked right into a trip wire. With a startled shout, she fell backwards and hit her head on the floor.

  
“Fuck! Oh man....” She tentively held a hand to her head, before crab-walking out of the range of the trip wire. She stood, her back pressed to the wall, trying to figure out what to do. She could blow it up, or she could just crawl underneath it and bypass the explosion and noise. A quick inventory of her goods decided for her. She couldn’t afford to set this trip wire off, not without causing significant structural damage, as well as the possibility that she herself could be injured in the blast. Slowly and cautiously, she crawled underneath the wire and entered the next room.

  
After moving out of the range of the trip wire, she looked around the room and sighed. The only apparent way to go was a doorway blocked by a cabinet, and that trip wire she just crawled under? Yeah, she had to do that again.

  
Leona muttered to herself as she crawled under the wire again, rethinking her decision to not set the stupid thing off, and after pushing herself as close to the wall as she could, she began pushing the decaying cabinet out of her way. She took her time, stopping every so often to listen to the suspicious noises that the house was making. When the cabinet was pushed out of the way, making a hole that was just the right size for her, Leona squeezed through and stopped. The only thing in the room was a large wardrobe, and it was moving.

  
“...” She stood there, considering her choices. It was the only thing in the room, and she hadn’t noticed anything else in or around the house that would lead her to somewhere else, so the wardrobe had to be important. But it was moving, and in Leona’s line of work, moving things usually have people in them. Thing was, was this person ‘normal’ or like the villagers? Or was it even a person at all?

  
Scowling at her train of thought, Leona walked to the wardrobe, and stood to the side. She unravelled the rope around the handles and threw open the door.

  
Out fell a thoroughly frightened looking woman who was tied up and gagged, who, upon seeing Leona and her gun, tried to shuffle away.

  
Inside Leona sighed with relief. It was only a civilian.

  
“It’s ok, my name is Leona. Here, I can help.” Putting her gun away, she gently pulled the tape covering the woman’s mouth off.

  
“...Thanks....” The woman looked at Leona wearily. It was to be expected though. Leona didn’t know why the woman was in the wardrobe, but she’d probably be weary if she was shoved in a piece of furniture, then rescued by some lady with a gun.

  
“You’re...you’re not like them...are you?” Leona quickly untied the woman before answering.

  
“No...You?”

  
“If I was, I wouldn’t have been tied up and stuffed into a wardrobe stinking of moth-balls. Now, I have one, very important question.” The woman stood, and let out a satisfied groan as she stretched.

  
“Oh?” Leona had her head cocked, one ear listening for anything out of the ordinary, despite the fact that the whole mission was out of the ordinary.

  
“You got a smoke? I’ll tell ya, my body is SCREAMING for some nicotine. Do you know how hard it is to find good cigarettes around here? It’s killing me.” She gave Leona a look of exaggerated sorrow, but Leona shook her head in reply.

  
“...I’ve got gum? It’s strawberry.” Leona shrugged in apology. She’d tried smoking once, but after the Raccoon Incident any sort of inhibitor fell off of Leona’s list of habits.

  
“...” The woman considered her offer, and was about to speak when a large blast ripped through the house. Leona through herself to the side, and dimly realized the maybe not tripping that wire was a good idea.

  
“Shit...That’s gotta be the Big Cheese...” The woman grimaced. She’d fallen, and as she pulled herself into a standing position, Leona noticed a small amount of blood.

  
“The Big Cheese? Great...” A smashing noise told her that someone was coming, and she moved in front of the woman, intent on limiting the number of people injured in her mission.

  
A hulking woman thundered into the room and snarled something at the two of them. This sent Leona’s body went into combat mode, and Leona’s brain caught up with her body just as she ran at the enemy, swinging her leg at the giant woman’s face. It was screaming at her, calling her an idiot for not drawing her gun. Really, she couldn’t have expected to win this small battle, so she wasn’t really all that startled when the woman grabbed her foot. She was startled, however, when the woman picked her up by her foot and threw her into the woman who was currently cursing in Spanish.

  
“!” Leona barely had time to draw a breath before the two of them crashed into the wardrobe, destroying it and causing something in Leona to crack. She tried to raise her head, but the pain and knock to her head was too much. She completely lost consciousness as the huge woman thundered closer...

  
\--

  
Somewhere, in a dark room, a woman starts to laugh.

  
Leona can’t hear it though; completely unconscious and oblivious to what is going to happen next.

  
“Oh, let us give you the gift of our…Power.” As an unknown woman continues to cackle, a hooded figure moves forwards, holding a silver platter with a syringe on it. Had Leona been awake, she would have fought back, would have tried to protest with everything she had. But, Leona was not awake, making the process of injecting her in the neck much easier for the hooded figure. Their job done, the figure stands and leaves as fast as possible, leaving Leona with the cackling woman.

  
“Hmmm… Yes, soon you will not be able to resist this…this intoxicating power. Soon you will succumb…”

  
Had Leona been awake at that moment, she would have no doubt commented on the theatrical tone the cackling woman was taking, about how absurd it was to be talking to someone like that when they were unable to respond. But, again, Leona was not awake, and thus was unable to reply.

  
\--

 


	4. Chapter 3: Leona Vs the Explosives

When Leona finally woke up, her head hurt, her neck was killing her, and her arm was so twisted she was almost afraid that it would break.

  
‘Shit, I hope it doesn’t…that’d be just what I don’t need…’ she thought, still feeling drowsy. Breathing also hurt, but she didn’t seem to think that she’d broken any ribs. She slowly opened her eyes and tried to lean forward, only to be caught by something wrapped around her chest. Raising her head, she could see that it wasn’t dark in what Leona assumed was a room, but there wasn’t a lot of light either. Leona shook her head, trying to clear her muddied vision before groaning, nauseated.

  
“Oh...I really shouldn’t have done that....” She whispered to herself.

  
“Yeah, you can say that again.” A voice from behind Leona replied, startling her.

  
Leona shot straight up, almost knocking heads with the person she was chained to.

  
“Who?!”

  
“I’m the person you let out of the wardrobe, before you did something stupid and got me captured again. Jeeze, from one absolute shit hole to another…” the woman sighed and flopped her head backwards, resting it on Leona’s shoulder.

  
“Oi! Do you think you could fill me in a bit here? I don’t exactly know what’s going on here, you know?” Leona tried to turn her head to get a better look at who she was tied to, but to no avail.

“You’re...Americana, si? What the hell are you doing in this shit hole?” The woman asked, before crying out in pain as Leona twisted her arm around. “Jesus! It was just a question, no need to get so defensive!”

  
“Sorry, I was trying to get this,” Leona pulled the photo of Ash out of her pocket. “My name’s Leona S. Kennedy and I’ve been sent here to find this man. Have you seen him?”

  
The woman took a sidelong glance at the photo, before answering. “Huh, you don’t really look like any cop I’ve met…but, no, I haven’t seen him...” She then chuckled. “Wait, let me take a guess. The man you’re looking for...Is the American president’s son.”

  
Leona narrowed her eyes, staring into the dark corners of their holding place, before purposely pulling on the chain. “That is way too good to be a ‘guess’. Wanna start telling me what you know? I’m not in the best mood right now, so I’m not going to be very patient...”

  
“Ow! Haha, I don’t suppose you’d accept psychic powers as an answer, would you?” Leona tensed. She’d better have not ended up chained to a nut house! “Nah...Just messing with you. I heard some of those…people talking about some important Americano being locked up somewhere in the church.”

  
Leona relaxed. “I almost thought you were being serious about being psychic. But thanks for the tip, it’ll make things easier for me. Now, what’s your name? I’ve told you mine, so it’d be nice to know who I’m chained to.”

  
“Mi llamo Louisa Sera. Former cop in the employment of the Madrid Policia, but now I’m just a no good lay-about who spends too much time partying out on the town.” Leona could almost hear the grin on Louisa’s face.

  
“Oh, a former cop huh? Did you quit?”

  
“Yeah.’ Louisa sighed, dramatically. “You know, the thing with being a cop is you put your life on the line all the time, but you get no respect, no appreciation, and really, guys don’t seem very interested in a strong woman in uniform. It really isn’t all that it’s cracked up to being anymore...”

  
Leona blinked. “So… you quit because you weren’t getting dates? Really?” Louisa nodded, laughing, and Leona just shook her head. “I used to be a cop as well. But I only lasted for a day.”

  
“...And I thought I was shit at my job. What happened?”

  
“I managed to get mixed up in the Racoon City incident. It was my first day, and subsequently, my last. I got out, and then they gave me this job.”

  
“Huh, that’s unfortunate. So, that was the incident with the...viral outbreak, right? I think I saw a sample of that somewhere at work.”

  
“What? Where would you have seen a sample of it? Any samples I’ve seen have been closely guarded by the American government. There’s no way an outside government-” Leona’s question was cut off as a bloodied villager with a hefty axe stumbled into the room.

  
“Shit! Do something, cop!” Louisa began struggling, but Leona pulled her up straight with the chain and got her to stop wriggling.

  
“Oh yeah? You do something too, former cop! Listen, when he goes to attack us, pull away, and hopefully he’ll hit the middle of the chains and break us free!”

  
The axe man raised his axe, and started to swing it down.

  
“Move! Now!” Leona lurched forwards, and felt Louisa do the same. The chains snapped, as Leona thought they would, and she somersaulted forwards. She turned from where she was crouched, and watched as Louisa bolted from the room.

  
‘Oh well, she was just a civilian. A former cop, but still a civilian.’ She then turned her attentions to the villager who’d hefted his axe again. He charged her, and she kicked out, sending him flying over her head and into the wall, where she heard his neck snap.

  
“That was close. Way too close. I’m not going to let myself get into that sort of position again...” She was breathing heavily, but managed to calm her breathing before pulling out her communicator. “I should call Hunnigan...”

  
“Hey. It’s Leona. Sorry about not contacting you sooner. I was a bit, err, tied up.”

  
“Really now? Well you’re ok, right?”

  
Hunnigan smirked at Leona, and she blushed. “Yeah, I’m fine now. Jerk. But there was a female civilian held captive here as well. She confirmed your information that Ash is being hidden in the church somewhere.”

  
“What happened to the civ?”

  
“She ran off after we were attacked, but I think she’ll be okay. Anyways, I’m going to try and find that key so I can get to the church.”

  
“Well, do you have a bead on where the key might be?”

  
“Nope. I’ve got no clue, but I’ll try and see if I can get a hold of someone who can tell me where it is.”

  
“Hmmm...Ok, well, be careful.” Hunnigan waved, before cutting communication.

  
“Well, I’m going to try heading back to the village now. Now to see where the hell I’ve ended up.” She put her communicator back in her pocket and started moving through the room, pleasantly surprised to find that all of her weapons and her pouches were laid out in the room, before heading towards the exit into the hallway. She’d barely started walking towards the door when a head popped into view through the window.  
“Over here, Stranga.” A female voice called out, hidden by a purple hood, before disappearing from the window.

  
“Wait! Who...Oh, she’s gone. Now, was she talking to me? Yes Leona, she was talking to you. Who else would she be talking to? Now stop talking to yourself and let’s get out of here.” Leona shook her head at her behaviour, and walked out of the building. She moved to a stone wall, and was startled to see where she was. She could see that she was in some sort of canyon, and she peered through a crack in the stone wall, seeing at least 20 of the villagers, all armed with farm tools and TNT.

  
“Well, I think I’m going to find that other lady before going out there...Don’t really wanna get blown up...” She turned from the wall and walked around the side of the house, before stopping in front of the woman who’d called to her. She swept open her coat, flashing Leona a look at her wears.

  
“Got somethin’ that might interest ya.”

  
“What do you mean?” Leona asked, suspicious.

  
“All sorts of guns and maps and such. Interested?”

  
“....” Leona stared. “Uh...I don’t suppose you take credit?”

  
“The villagers should have some money. Take it off of them and I’ll sell you what you need.” The woman, no, girl giggled as she closed her coat.

  
“...Ok...Would I have to pay you if I asked for some information?” Leona wanted to know what the fuck was going on, and she wanted to know now.

  
“Hmmmm...Info is free, but I won’t answer everything. But ask away, Stranga.” She motioned for Leona to start.

  
“Ok then. What’s your name? Where exactly am I? What’s the quickest way back to the village? I need a key to get to the church, do you have any idea where it may be? Do you know what this piece of paper means?” After her last question, Leona held up the paper referring to the medallions.

  
“Ya can call me the Merchant. A canyon connected to the village, used for mining. Go through that door over there; you’ll need two crest parts first. They’ll be in chests around here. Then there’s the chief’s house, the key should be in there. The passageway is hidden in the village, inside the house near the tower, with the insignia on the door. Bring me the medallions, and I’ll give ya somethin’ good. Is that all Stranga?”

  
Leona scrutinized the girl. “Yeah….Two crests, right? Just sitting in some chests?”

  
“…Yes. That is what I said Stranga.”

  
“Ok…What else do you do? Do you just sell weapons?”

  
“I sell weapons and maps, I’ll buy anything you might wanna sell, and for the right price, I’ll up-grade your weapons. M’ papa taught me the trade, and English.”

  
“What sorts of things do you buy?”

  
“Weapons, ammunition, and any treasures and gems you might find.”

  
Leona reached into her pocket, where she had stored the rocks she’d pried out of the top of the tunnel. “So, could I sell you these?”

  
The Merchant took one from Leona and held it to the sky, inspecting it. “Ay. It’s a Spinel, and I’ll give ya…50 pesetas each. Do ya wanna sell?”

  
Leona handed the other three over. “Yep, gladly. I don’t really need them.”

  
“Eheheheheh…Thank ya!” The strange girl handed Leona the 150 pesetas, and then asked, “Any thin’ else, Stranga?”

  
“Nope…well, at least not yet. Will you be around in other places?” Leona turned away, and started walking back to the gate.

  
“You’ll see me around, Stranga!” The Merchant called out as Leona turned to the front of the house.

  
“Well, it’s nice to know that the local arms dealer is on my side…I think. Then again, I haven’t seen any of these towns’ people coming after me with rifles, so…” Leona shook her head and approached the gate and wall surrounding the house and separating it from the mining canyon.

  
She peered through, trying to see the best opportunity to enter the canyon area without alerting all the enemies to her presence. She waited until she couldn’t see anyone in her peripheral vision, then hopped over the fence rather than open the gate because it looked rather squeaky and she didn’t want the hostiles to know she was there yet.

  
“Hmmmm…” She watched as the villagers milled around aimlessly, hatchets and pitchforks in their hands and sticks of TNT in their belts. “I have a feeling that this could become dangerous for me.” Leona looked over to her side, at the roof of a house or storage area. “I don’t think I can jump over to that. But it looks like there’s a chest of sorts there, and I guess I need whatever’s in it. I wonder if there is an easy way up there. A ladder maybe?”

  
She became so preoccupied with looking for a way to the roof that she didn’t notice the villager, pitchfork in hand, until he was nearly on top of her.

  
“SHIT!” Leona stood and fired three rapid shots at the man’s face. He fell quickly, but she could see others coming her way. “Crap! Yeah, yelling wasn’t the best course of action…” She looked down the path, where more villagers were gathering. “There is no chance of me going through that mob and not getting hurt…”

  
Leona considered her options. “So I can go back through the gate and get trapped, go through them and get badly hurt, or maybe…” She looked again at the roof. “Yeah, ok.” She shook her head and backed up until she was all the way against the gate, before running forwards and pushing off with her left foot. She reached for the roof, and only just managed to grab the edge.

  
“Nnnnnggggh….” She threw up her other hand and began pulling herself up. She’d just climbed onto the top when the villagers started moving towards her again.

  
“Try and get me now, fuck-faces.” Leona smiled and backed away from the edge. They might not have guns, but what they did have could be thrown. She turned towards the chest and groaned. There was a trap door right beside it. “Well, I guess I know how I could have gotten up here. I wonder….” She looked on the roof for something to put over it. “Damn. Nothing but the chest. I wonder if I can move this thing.” Leona gave it an experimental shove. “I guess not.”

  
Leona sighed and opened the chest. She pulled out a small piece of crest and stuffed it into her pack. “So I need another one of these and I can leave the area? But where is the other piece?” She pulled out her binoculars and started looking around. She almost missed the other chest, but she noticed the sun glinting off of something.

  
“Is that it? Uhg, here come the zombie substitutes.” They started to shuffle towards her. “At least it’s easier to pick them off from up here. I just have to make sure no one comes up from the trap door…”

  
Leona kneeled and took aim with her handgun, shooting at heads and arms, killing and disarming her opponents. She had the feeling that she should be saving her shotgun ammo, so she didn’t use it to disperse the crowd. Once she’d killed most of them, through gunfire or knocking them into the canyon, she climbed down a ladder that was leaning against the side of a wall.

  
“Well, time to get moving….Now, that person up there told me to look for money from the villagers…So I guess that means looting the bodies?” Leona walked over to one of the dead people. “I…I don’t know if I can do that.”

  
She gave a sideways look to the bodies, nudged one, and began creeping up the ledge that lead to the other part of the canyon.

  
Leona had almost reached the top when she heard a hissing sound and was blown backwards by the resulting explosion.

  
She lay on the ground, head bleeding, before hoisting herself up, using a pile of sandbags. She looked around slowly, and winced as she felt for where the blood leaking from her head was coming from.

  
“Son of a bitch.” She swore loudly, and then stopped. “ Munchkins stealing my socks? Great….I hate this part of explosions.” The period of deafness after an explosion was never any fun, especially when there was a possibility of enemies coming to stab you with things. Leona looked ahead, where the explosive had come from and could barely make out the shape of a person. Leona pulled up her gun and shot, hearing a very muffled shout as she ran forward, startling the injured man as she kicked him in the face, shattering his nose and sending him flying.

  
Leona ignored any other possible enemies, choosing rather to wrench open the chest and pull out the other half of the crest. She shoved another villager off of his look-out and jumped down after him. Leona could hear people coming after her as she fit the two half’s of the crest together and shoved it into the gate. She wrenched it open and slipped inside, before pushing it closed again.

  
“Hopefully they’ll get bored and not try and get through there after me….” Leona huffed, before checking her ears. They weren’t bleeding, and she was starting to get her hearing back, so she figured that she was good.

  
“I guess I’ll have to remember that while they don’t have guns, they do have dynamite…”

  
Leona couldn’t see anyone in the area with her, so she started to look around; peering into the open garbage bins filled with rubble and smashing open the boxes and barrels lying around. Leona collected everything she deemed important, and turned to the red metal door.

  
Leona reloaded her weapons, including the shotgun she’d lifted, and pushed the door open. She crept in, looking around what appeared to be the storage facility where the mined materials were probably kept. She  could see something shining through an indoor window, and looked for potential threats before moving over to it. She took a closer look and was surprised to see what looked like a gold mask hanging on the wall.

  
“…I wonder if I can sell that? Actually, I wonder if I can get to it…It doesn’t look like this window is going to open or disappear anytime soon…”

  
Leona did another sweep with her gun, then went through the only other door in the room. Almost immediately a man ran towards her, brandishing a kitchen knife. She shot at the man until he fell. She jostled the man with her foot, and several coins fell out of a pocket.

  
As Leona stooped down to pick them up, another villager ran around a broken wall towards her. Leona rolled to the side, and swept the villagers legs out from under him. She then took aim, and fired into his face.  
Leona wiped her face off, removing most of the blood that had splattered her. “I…don’t think I’m going to root around in that guys shirt…I think I’ll stick to selling shit I find instead, or stuff that rolls out of their pockets…unless it gets desperate.”

  
She continued through the room, and went through the next door, only to duck back out as a stick of dynamite was hurled at her.

  
“Oh God damn fucking stupid….” Leona debated her choices, before she remembered the grenade she’d pilfered from the farm. She pulled the pin as she pushed open the door, and flung it to the far side of the room. Closing the door, Leona could hear the explosion and yelling coming from inside. Just as she went to open the door, another series of explosions occurred.

  
This time, she waited a little longer before entering. The room had several barriers, now destroyed, and ten or twelve bear traps, which had either been displaced or set off during the explosions. Leona crept around the bear traps, and pulled open the other door.

  
There was about 20 centimeters of water on the floor, and the room had several defunct boilers in it. As Leona went around the perimeter, she noticed a table pushed up against a doorway, blocking it.

  
“…Now, what’s in there, hm?” One quick look for enemies, and Leona toppled the table. It splashed on the floor, getting her wet, but Leona ignored that. She wiped the water off her face as she stepped in and lifted the gold mask she’d seen previously off of its shelf.  
“Wow…” She stared at it for several minutes, before snapping out of it. She carefully placed it in her bag, and left the cubby.

  
“…I probably shouldn’t be taking this, but…Maybe I’ll run into that girl again. I can give it to her. I mean, it’s not stealing if I give it back, right?” Leona made a non-committal noise as she walked through another open door.

  
This time it was a stone walkway that sloped downwards, and she could hear water sloshing around.

  
Leona turned the corner and almost walked into a villager, his back turned. As he started to turn around, Leona overcame her shock and grabbed his shoulders, pushing him towards the low barrier that separated the walkway from the water below.

  
The villager toppled off of the walkway, splashing in the water, and Leona moved to the ladder leading up into the light.

  
As she climbed, she could hear the man she’d pushed splashing around, but she was too busy climbing to care or contemplate him coming after her.

  
Leona clambered out of the hole, and surveyed her surroundings. “Ok, so I came out of there…a well I guess? Oh, and look. Another one of those creepy signposts. Ooh! And bear traps and a trip wire. They really went all out around here.” She rolled her eyes and entered the small shack that was across from the well.

  
“And there’s nothing but boxes in here. Then again, what was I expecting?” Leona smashed the boxes, and snatched up the handgun ammo and the weird plant.

  
She walked around the shack, and noticed something stuck to the top of a cover over a bucket of filthy water.

  
“Hmm?” Leona snatched at it, pulling it off its hook. “…This is a nice looking pocket watch. Who the heck would leave this here? Then again, it doesn’t seem like the people around here are really all there, so maybe they think that’s a good place to keep their valuables…”

  
Leona turned her attention back to the bobby-trapped trail. “…Now, what would be the best way to deal with this? I could try and sneak under, but then there are the bear traps. I could set off the trip wire, but that’d alert anyone a head that I’m coming…” She stared at the trap before sighing. “Setting it off would be the smartest idea, but presents the highest risk. Oh, what the heck. I guess my only other choice would be to hop back down that well, but I don’t feel like getting wet again.”

  
Leona took aim at the box strapped to one of the trees, and fired. The explosives exploded, and one of the bear traps was set off. She waited until the smoke cleared before setting the other bear traps off with a heavy stick.

  
Once that was done, she walked up the trail, and through the door-less door way. “Heh…These guys sure know how to take care of their shit.” Laughing at the seemingly easy access to the house, but upon reaching the top of the stairway she sighed. “Oh man, now what.” There was an ornate door with a moveable glass ball fitted in the top middle.

  
“Some sort of puzzle? Maybe if I do this….” Leona muttered to herself as she started moving the ball around, twisting it left and right, moving it up and down, before she heard a click and the ball became stiff and refused to move.

  
The wall slid open, and Leona stepped inside. “Well, that was pretty easy. Easier than some of the other puzzles I’ve done… Now where am I?”

  
She moved over to the window, looking out, but was unable to see anything familiar.

  
‘Then again, this entire place looks the same to me. Forests and trees all around…’

  
She turned away, and decided to snoop around. Leona pried open the drawers, finding an egg in one, and what she assumed was the key she was looking for in the other.

  
“Well, that was easy.” Leona tucked the key away before she continued to snoop. Peaking inside the wardrobe, she found a pile of coins sitting in the bottom, and quickly pocketed them. After one more cursorily look, Leona stepped out into a hallway. She looked in a cabinet, before backing into something, or someone, solid.

  
“…ehhhh…” Leona slowly turned around, and, before she could bolt, was swiftly hefted into the air by a hefty woman who had her thick hand around Leona’s neck.

  
The woman stared at Leona, who was struggling for breath, for some time before dropping her.

  
“You…have the same blood as us. But if you continue to interfere, you WILL be killed.” The woman, who Leona was just recognizing as the woman she’d tried to kick in the face, then turned from her and entered the room Leona had just left.

  
“Wha-? Same blood? What?” Leona stood up, and stumbled, leaning on the wall. “What did she mean by that?”


	5. Chapter 4: No more late night sushi...

Leona stared, stunned, at the door the Village Chief went through as her communicator went hay-wire.

  
“Leona, I’ve found something you should know. It’s about….” Hunnigan trailed off, worry creeping into his voice. “Are you alright?”

  
“I think I’m ok. I had an altercation with the village chief again. I don’t really know what happened though. She grabbed me, and she could have killed me just now, but then she said something weird. Something about me having the same blood as her? I don’t know what it means…but I need to go back into that room. I need to find out what she meant.” Leona idly rubbed her throat and took a step towards the door. “But what did you need to tell me?”

  
“Well, we’ve learned some more about the people behind this. A cult, called the Los Illuminados. It seems that the villagers are being called ‘Ganados’ as well.”

  
He looked at her through the tiny screen, before speaking again. “Leona, promise me you’ll be careful. We can’t afford to lose you.” Hunnigan looked worried, so Leona attempted to lay his fears to rest.

  
“Don’t work. I’ll be ok. What else were those 5 years of special training for?” She clicked her communicator closed before Hunnigan could reply, and pulled out her weapon. She paused at the door, before opening it. As she stepped inside, she was immediately grabbed and thrown to the ground, her gun skittering across the floor, and a huge boot pressing against her chest.

  
“Hng!” Leona struggled against the boot, reaching for her gun, struggling to breathe.

  
“You were warned….” The huge woman pressed down on Leona’s chest, before a burst of bullets rained through the window. Glass lay shattered around Leona as the chief threw herself out the window at the shooter, and Leona lay there, breathing in with ragged gasps.

  
“Who, who was that?” Leona stood up quickly, the idea of there being more people around, more enemies, worried her. She picked up her gun, and walked to the shattered window. She couldn’t see anything or anyone around the house.

  
Taking one last, close look around the room, she left the room, closing the door quietly behind her.

  
‘Not that it really matters. I mean, if there’s anyone here they would have heard the commotion up here….then again they may assume that the chief was the victor too. Either way I still have to be careful…’ Leona crept down the stairs, hugging the walls and listening for even the slightest sound. She eventually made it to the bottom of the stairs, and after a quick inspection, the only thing she found was a chicken hiding inside of an old, broken-down stove.

  
“Now, how did you get in there?” She shook her head, and continued her inspection of the ground floor. After smashing the glass of a china cabinet to get at a flash bang, (what the hell is this doing here?), Leona turned to the only door that didn’t lead to the outside.

  
As she stepped inside the room, a bloody and dirty man launched himself at Leona, grasping at her with his hands. Leona fell backwards and kicked at him as she pulled up her gun. She fired two shots at him, and he slumped to the ground.

  
“God damned zombies. Why was he even in here in the first place? It’s not like there’s any reason for him to be in the bathroom...”

  
Leona shook her head, and after checking her supplies, left the house. She had only taken a few steps and she heard a noise she had no interest in hearing ever again.

  
“Shit! Is that another chainsaw…?” Leona backed up, and pulled out the shotgun, readying herself. She took aim as a bag-headed man came into view and began to shoot. After taking 6 or so shotgun shells to the head, the chainsaw man stumbled, and Leona took the chance to reload the shotgun, and to duck inside the house.

  
“Hopefully this guy won’t come in here….” She said to herself as she backed towards the dining table. Unfortunately, that was not the case. The door dissolved in a mess of splinters, and Leona started firing again.  
As the chainsaw man came closer, Leona moved around the dining table, and pulled out her handgun. She began to edge away, firing into the zombies head and he swung the chainsaw aimlessly. Finally, just as Leona was staring to think that she was going to have to run up the stairs to get away, the chainsaw dropped to the floor and the man slumped over the table.

  
“…” Leona crept up to his body, and nudged it with the shotgun. When he didn’t move, Leona bent and shut the chainsaw off. As she moved to stand, something glittering rolled on to the ground, out of the villager’s pocket.

  
“What’s this?!” Leona held up what appeared to be a large ruby, and after several seconds pocketed it. She could hear more villagers coming, and she wanted to be fully reloaded before they burst into the house as well.

  
She listened at the door, before slowly pushing it open. There was only one villager in the yard, and Leona took him out before he could shout a warning. She surveyed the yard, looking for anything of importance, before slowly moving down the pathway. She could see another villager, and took aim. The villager fell quickly, but her shots stirred a woman hiding in a small shack. The woman shrieked, and began to run towards Leona, hand wrapped tight around a bloodied kitchen knife. Leona stopped her short though, and quickly moved along the path, dispatching the villagers the best she could. Towards the end of the trail, she could see a large black gate, and a small mob of villagers.

  
“Shit.” Leona leveled her gun, and started taking shots at the approaching Spaniards. She took down 4 of the attackers before pulling out her knife. “Of all the times to run out of ammo…” she readied herself, and dove into the crowd.

  
Leona was good with her knife, both from using it in Raccoon and being extensively trained with it in the service, and sliced her way through the crowd.

  
She looked around at the corpses, before bending down and rustling through ones clothing. “I don’t want to do this, but if you have something in here, I need it more than you.” She pulled out a half-empty box of shotgun shells, and reloaded the gun. “Ok, I hate to admit it, but I guess searching you guys is worth it.”

  
Leona turned back, carefully moving through the pockets of the slain villagers and picking out money and ammunition, and found herself with 1000 more Pesetas, a fully loaded shotgun, a fully loaded handgun, and about one box of ammunition for each. She also searched the shack the female villager had been hiding in, but didn’t find much of anything.

  
“I think I’m done here…” Leona said, looking back down the trail. She pulled the bar off the gate, and pushed it open. Stepping back out into the village proper, she crept down the trail, looking towards the building by the tower. She couldn’t see many villagers lingering around the area, so she avoided a confrontation by running straight for the door, slamming the key into the lock, and pulling herself inside.

  
There was nothing but several crates and another typewriter, and Leona avoided the crates after hearing a series of loud rattling and hissing coming from one of the crates. She poke around, finding only an egg, which she carefully placed in her pouch with the other one in case she ended up staying the night, and she wanted something to eat.

  
She looked around the door frame, and seeing nothing but a trap door, opened it and dropped down. There wasn’t much light, candles in cubbies in the walls, so Leona made sure to take her time walking down the stairs and into the first cavern.

  
Leona looked around, and quietly made her way into the next room. It was seemingly empty as well, but as Leona was about to leave, she could see something glittering in the ceiling.

  
“Another gem?” She stood on the tips of her toes and used her knife to loosen the rock holding the item in place. Finally if broke free, and Leona bent down to pick it up from where it fell.

  
“…This isn’t a gem.” Leona held the brooch up, looking it over. “I would love to keep this….” She sighed and placed it in her pouch, and continued through to the next room.

  
“Ello there, Stranga.” The strange merchant girl had somehow moved to the cavern, and waved Leona over.

  
“How?” Leona shook her head. “Wait, I don’t want to know how you made it here ahead of me.”

  
The merchant giggled. “That’s a secret, Stranga. Do you have somethin to sell? Or are ya just lookin to buy?”

  
“Give me a second, I don’t even know what I have right now.” Leona wondered why she felt so friendly and at ease around the merchant, but shrugged her feelings off. The girl wasn’t trying to kill her, and seemed interested in helping Leona.

  
“Uh, how much for this stuff?” Leona laid out several things she had stashed in her pouches. The ruby, the brooch, the golden mask, the egg, and pocket watch were looked at with an apprising eye, and Leona found herself holding the mask and 20,000 Pesetas.

  
“You don’t want the mask?” she asked, placing it back in her pouch.

  
“It’s incomplete, Stranga. There’s a slot for three stones. Try and find them and then I’ll buy it.” The merchant placed the items purchased into her giant pack, before turning back to Leona. “Ya wanna buy anything now, Stranga?”

  
“Well, what do you have? And do you think I’ll be able to afford it?” Leona pulled out the small bag that she was keeping the money in.

  
“Hmm, well I have this…” The merchant pulled a case out from behind her, and opened it, revealing a rifle. “Are ya interested, Stranga?”

  
“Yes. Yes I am.” Leona handed over a good deal of the Pesetas before picking up the rifle, looking it over. The merchant also handed over a clip, so Leona could hang it on her back with the shotgun.

  
“Ehhehheh, thank ya Stranga!” The merchant placed the Pesetas back into her money pack, and waved goodbye as Leona stepped through the door.

  
Closing the door behind her, Leona looked up at a ladder, and quickly scaled it. Popping out of the secret passage, which was concealed in a mausoleum, Leona found herself face to face with two villagers, wielding torches.

  
All three froze, before they lunged for Leona and she whipped out her handgun. She shot the first woman three times in the head before she fell, and was able to trip up the other villager, before shooting her.

  
They didn’t have anything of importance on them, and Leona walked out into the cemetery, gazing despairingly at the grave stones. “I hope nothing comes crawling out of those.” She stuck to the path, and was half-way up the path before noticing a blue disc hanging in the trees.

  
“It’s another one of those. I almost forgot about collecting them.” She leaned over the fence and cut the string, collecting the disc.

  
Leona looked around for the rest of the discs, and collected them, shoving them in her pouch. She debated going back to the merchant, but decided against it. She had to locate Ash, and she was likely to run into the merchant later.

  
As she moved up to the church, Leona could hear footsteps, and she pulled out her shotgun. She didn’t know who was coming, but a shotgun is always nice. She reached the flat land in front of the church, and gave the door a try.

  
It didn’t open, and she could see the indentation where an emblem or large key would have fit. She sighed, and was about to call Hunnigan when the footsteps stopped. She turned and peered around the corner of the church, before pulling her shotgun up.

  
“Hi there. Do you know where the key is?” The villager shot towards her, and Leona shot at him, hitting him in the face with two shells.

  
“Guess not.” She pulled out her communicator and called Hunnigan.

  
“What’s up, Leona?”

  
“Nothing much. You know, just hanging out in Spain. Anyway, the church is locked and I can’t get in.”

  
“Oh, I though they taught you to be masters of lock-picking in the service.” Hunnigan was laughing and Leona rolled her eyes.

  
“Locked with an emblem as the key. I’m going to go check out another area. It looks like there’s a path.”

  
“Ok Leona, be careful. It looks like there’s a swamp, a lake, and a dam up that way.”

  
“Understood.” Leona cut the connection and pocketed her communicator.

  
She headed over to the path, but noticed an arch at the back of the church. She looked around, and entered, finding herself looking at some kind of puzzle pedestal.

  
There was a Cats eye stuck in it, but it didn’t exactly fit, and Leona was able to stick her knife under the grate and flick the stone out. She picked it up, pulled out the golden mask, and inserted the Cats eye into the top.

  
Disappointed that there wasn’t anything else, like a back door, Leona left the back garden and walked down the path. She was wary of stepping off the ground on to the wooden platforms, but found that running from one section of solid ground to the other was less stressful. (Even if she almost fell through the first hole in the planks.)

  
After calming herself, Leona opened the door and stepped though.

  
“Hm, looks like they’re doing some sort of construction in here…” She stepped through the timbers around the door, and entered a large open area.

  
A murder of crows flew off as Leona move to the center of the area. She decided to work along the perimeter before checking the huts, but changed her mind after hearing a loud huffing, groaning noise. Looking through the huts, she hit the jackpot, finding boxes of ammunition and small bags of money. She even found two incendiary grenades in the last hut, which almost worried her.

  
“Jeeze, I wonder what’s next? This stuff shouldn’t be sitting out if there isn’t something big coming up…” Leona muttered as she picked up an herb. It was the same type of plant that grew in Raccoon, and when Leona had looked into it, discovered that wetting the leaves and applying them to a wound would stem blood flow and provide a minor antibiotic and painkiller. She cut the roots off and folded the plant into her medical pouch, before pushing open a large gate.

  
It opened to a small area, with two barrels, which she smashed, and two doors. She opened the door at the bottom of the stairs, and walked through. She jumped down a level, and found herself in a cave. She walked further into it, and saw the merchant standing behind a counter.

  
“…Okay, let me guess. You are twins? That’s how you can be places ahead of me, right? I mean, I’m pretty sure you didn’t pass me on the way out of that other cave system.” Leona leant against the counter, shaking her head.

  
“Good guess, but no, Stranga. The answer is secret.” She winked at Leona, who rolled her eyes. “Now, have you got all those medallions?”

  
Leona started, having completely forgotten that she’d collected the blue medallions. “Oh, yeah! Here you go.” She pulled them out of her pack, and placed them on the counter.

  
“Ehheheheh, thank you, Stranga. Here’s your prize!” The girl pocketed the medallions, and passed Leona a weapons case.

  
“Huh?” She opened it, and pulled out a handgun.

  
“That’s a Punisher. More powerful, I’d recon, than the piece you’ve got there. It holds 13 shots per clip, and the kickback is very little.” The Merchant recited the specs of the gun as Leona looked it over.  
“And you’re just….giving me this?” Leona asked, placing her other handgun on the counter.

  
“Yep. You completed my challenge, Stranga, so you get a prize. You lookin to sell your other weapon?” The merchant asked, but Leona shook her head.

  
“Not yet, I just want to check something out….” Leona grabbed the other gun, and walked over to the small dock. She took aim at a stalactite that was hanging over the water, and shot at it with her issued handgun. She then switched out, and fired with the ‘Punisher’.

  
Leona looked at both guns, before returning to the counter. “So, what will you give me for this?” She plunked down her old handgun, and the Merchant picked it up.

  
“Hmm…” She turned the gun over, inspecting it, before replying. “5000 pesetas, Stranga. And a clip of ammo. Does that sound okay?”

  
“It’s a deal.” Leona took her cash and the clip of ammunition, putting it in her pouch.

  
“Nice dealing with yeah. Take a look around too, Stranga. This used to be my dad’s, so there is probably some things hiding around.” The Merchant waved as Leona walked around the shack, and she found a ladder around the back.

  
She explored the area, finding more ammo and another herb, before she left the area. She waved back to the Merchant, and left the cave.

  
“This feels weird, that girl helping me…. I wonder if she has an alternate motive….” Leona muttered, her new gun out and pushing open the next door.

  
She walked out on to a sloped path, flanked on both sides by tall cliffs, and noticed another bloody warning post. She turned, looking up, but was unable to see anything.

  
‘Hmmm… I think I’d better get ready to run…’ She carefully started to make her way down the path, but started to curse as another boulder rolled its way towards her.

  
She started to sprint as the boulder picked up speed, jumping over exposed roots and rocks, before she dove to the side. She hit the ground and rolled against the wall, in a divot the boulder couldn’t hit, and shielded her face as the giant rock shattered as it hit the rock wall.

  
“Shit!” She had a long gash on her arm, bigger than her other injuries, and she had no choice but to use on of her herbs to slow the bleeding. Luckily for Leona, she had arrived at the swamp, and after a couple of minutes had herself all fixed up.

  
“Next time I’m going to make sure I get kitted out with more medical supplies before I ship off.” She still winced as she stood and observed the swamp.

  
It was fairly straight forward area, but it was littered with enemies and, for some reason, explosive trip wires. Leona shot the explosive boxes, trying out her new rifle, and managed to take out quite a few of the villagers, before running onto the long dock. She was soon surrounded by villagers, but Leona decided that avoiding them might be the better idea. She hopped into the water, running and dodging both snakes and hostiles, before she reached dry land again and a gate.

  
She dove through the gate, slamming it shut before any of the villagers chasing her could get through. They didn’t seem all that interested in chasing her after she went through the gate, so she relaxed. As she moved forwards along the new path, it split. Leona looked both ways, trying to judge which path looked more like a dead end.

  
“…Screw it, I’m going left.” She began walking up the hill, listening to the lake. As she got to the end of the path, which overlooked the lake, she heard a boat.

  
Crouching, she pulled out her binoculars out and focused on the boat.

  
“Oh no…” She watched as two of the villager stopped in the middle of the lake and dumped the body of the other police officer out into the water. The villagers speed away on their boat, and Leona lowered her binoculars. “Lord…”

  
She was about to stand and walk away when she heard a loud splashing noise. St turned back to the lake, and stared, disbelieving, as a large…something launched out of the water, grabbing the officers corpse in its mouth before descending back to the bottom of the lake.

  
“What the fuck was that, and will I have to fight it.” Leona backed away from the lake, and jogged down the other part of the path. Reaching the end of that path, she let out a frustrated sigh. This path too ended at a dead end, nothing but a hut and a boat at the end of a dock.

  
Leona wearily got into the boat, accepting that she’d have to cross the lake, hoping she’d be able to race across before the monster caught up to her. She checked over the boat before starting it, making sure there were no leaks, and taking note of the suspicious supply of harpoons that were in it.

  
Finally, she set off, driving the boat straight through the middle of the lake, hoping that she could make it across in time.

  
She couldn’t though, and the monstrosity leapt out of the water in front of her, and she hastily readjusted her path. The jumping monster had disturbed the anchor on the boat though, and Leona suddenly found herself being dragged along behind the monster, her anchor stuck in its flesh.

  
“Shit shit shit shit!” She began to panic slightly, because neither the service nor being in Raccoon City had gotten her ready to be dragged around a lake by a fucking sea monster. As the monster surfaced, Leona looked to the harpoons, before grabbing one and chucking it as far as she could, sticking it into the monsters back. It began the thrash, and Leona managed to chuck another into the monster before it descended back into the water.

  
At this point, the boat stopped moving, and Leona, harpoon in hand, began to look around for signs of the monster. It was all silent for a moment, when it burst out of the water, coming towards her, mouth wide open.

  
“SHIT!” Leona threw the harpoon towards the monsters mouth, but missed. It grew closer as she fumbled, trying to grab another one. It was almost close enough to take a bite out of the boat when she heaved the harpoon into its maw.

  
Pained, the monster abruptly changed course, splashing into the water and sending Leona flying out into the lake. She swam to the surface, spitting out water and trying to catch sight of the boat. Finding it, she started to swim, the knowledge that the monster was probably right behind her, about to swallow her whole, spurred her on, giving her a burst of speed that boosted her into the boat.

  
Once she was safely inside the boat again, the monster began to pull it along again, and she found herself having to dodge the debris that littered the lake. The monster surfaced, and again Leona threw harpoons at its back until the boat stilled. Again the monster swam towards her, mouth open, and this time Leona was able to throw several harpoons inside its mouth before it diverted course. This time, however, she managed to stay in the boat.

  
“Just die already!” She yelled, bracing herself as she threw more harpoons into the monsters mouth, and was surprised and triumphant when it started to sink. She almost celebrated, when she felt the rope connected to the anchor brush against her leg.

  
As the monster’s corpse fell to the lake bed, the anchor followed suit, and unfortunately the rope it was connected to was wrapping itself around Leona’s leg. She cried out and it pulled her down, and grabbed for her knife. She wasn’t going to die from drowning, just having killed the monster! She slashed at the rope, franticly trying to cut it and not herself as she moved closer and closer to the edge of the boat. Her leg was almost over the edge of the boat when the rope finally snapped, and Leona pushed herself back into the middle of the boat, cursing.

  
After sometime, she sat up, and directed the boat towards the opposite side of the lake. Up against the dock, she struggled to stand, a sickly, oily feeling and taste in her mouth made her feel ill, and it was almost a chore to walk herself over to the house but the dock. She finally struggled into the building, before collapsing onto the floor.

  
Combined with the oily taste in her mouth, she felt a stabbing pain in her forearms, and when she looked down, cried out. She could see her veins, and something black and deadly was moving through them, darkening her blood. The pain grew so intense, moving through her body, and she found herself having a hard time breathing or seeing, before everything went black…


	6. Enter Ash

Leona woke with a start, the sound of heavy rain hitting the tin roof rousing her from an uneasy and nightmare plagued sleep. The fact that her communicator was going crazy helped to rouse her too.

She drowsily pulled it out and opened it, and once she linked up with Hunnigan, he almost screamed with relief at the sight of her face.

"Leona! What happened to you? We haven't been able to get a hold of you for hours!" The panic in his voice helped to slightly snap Leona back into reality, and she pulled herself up, stumbling over so she was leaning against the nearby table.

"Mmm, I'm not sure... I was on the other side of the lake, so I grabbed a boat…and then…I think I fought a sea monster or something. Then I just started feeling crappy and I must have blacked out…" She was starting to remember what had happened before she'd blacked out, but didn't mention it. It was bad enough that she passed out, she didn't want to believe that she was going crazy. Not to mention, the idea that something could possibly be in her, turning her veins black…Leona didn't want to really think about it, and Hunnigan looked worried enough.

"Fought a sea monster? What did it look like? Wait, no, never mind. That's not important right now, finding Ash is. Where are you at the moment?" Hunnigan shook his head.

"Er…" Leona wasn't actually sure, her body had been working on auto-pilot after the fight, and she straightened, looking around the room she was in. "I'm just on the other side of the lake. I should be coming up to the dam you mentioned soon. Hopefully the key to the church will be around here too."

"Yes, well you need to hurry. The President got another ransom note, it sounds like whatever they're planning on doing to Ash is going to happen tonight. You need to get to him before anything else happens. But, Leona…Be careful." Hunnigan sighed before closing the conversation, and Leona put her communicator away.

She looked around where she'd passed out, a small house, and picked through the cabinets and boxes, finding ammo and another herb. One last look around, and she pushed open the door. She stepped out into the downpour, finding herself instantly drenched.

"Lord, I'm happy the service had waterproofing added to our outfits." She muttered, chilled, as she looked around the area. She noticed a light across the lake, but decided against investigating it after looking at her boat.

'Another one of those monsters would probably show up, and I'm running low on harpoons.' She thought, before moving over to a gate, hidden in the back. Leona shoved it open, and slipped though.

The groans of the Ganados started immediately, and as Leona drew her weapon, one of their heads exploded. Leona ducked, thinking someone else had a gun, but when there were no other head explosions, and when she realized that the Ganados with the exploded head now had some sort of bladed thing sticking out of its neck, she pulled her gun up again and shot.

She took down two of the Ganados easily, but the one with the blade was harder to kill. She quickly switched to her shotgun, and two blasts took out the monstrosity.

"Great. Now they're mutating. Just what I was hoping for." Leona shook her head, before quickly rustling through the villagers clothing. She continued on her way, and came to a fast flowing river.

'This must be the dam…' She though, approaching it. Up where she was there wasn't much to see, but when she moved to the ledge, she could see water wheels and Ganados milling around. She swapped the shotgun for the rifle, and started to pick off the enemies. After she'd taken down the ones she could see, she then turned her attention to the cranes. They were moving crates back and forth, but not actually doing anything with them, and Leona, on a whim, shot at one of them, breaking the chain holding it up. It crashed into the river, and floated down until it hit a barrier.

Taking a closer look, Leona could see that it appeared to fill in a spot, making a more complete path to reach the other side of the fast moving water.

"Hmm…" Leona shot down the other two crates, which also floated down, forming a complete bridge. She waited for a moment, to see if anyone else was going to pop up, before repelling down the side of the cliff, using the rope someone had kindly left for her.

She wandered, smashing boxes and searching the dead, before moving to the unsteady bridge. Leona stalled several times, before just running blindly, jumping over the gaps and landing safely on the other side. Moving further away from the water's edge, she shivered.

"I'm never going to be warm again." She said to herself, observing the area. Behind the man-made water fall she could see another cave system, but the force of the water was too strong to walk through.

Looking around, Leona was able to see a valve up on a platform. As she climbed up to it, she could see something sitting on top of one of the support beams, over the middle of the platform, and ignored the valve for a moment to look closer at it.

It looked like some sort of bracelet, and she leaned over, using the butt of the rifle to knock it off its perch. She jumped down and grabbed it before returning to the platform and turning the valve. The dam closed, the water slowing before stopping, and Leona jumped down into a mob of Ganados.

"Shit!" Leona pulled out the shotgun and fired into the crown, before running through the break. At the mouth of the cave she turned, knowing that they would just follow her inside, and readied herself for some kind of fight.

The ganados moved slowly towards her, more cautious, but several of the ones she'd hit with the shotgun blasts now had the bladed parasites sticking out, and were advancing. She used up the last of her shotgun shells taking out the bladed enemies, and switched to her handgun to take out the rest of them. Once they were all dead, and despite the urge to search the bodies for ammo, she chose to enter the cave instead.

It was a short, small cave, but at the end, at an altar, was a round emblem, and Leona knew it was the key to the church. As she lifted it up, the wall behind it slid back, revealing a deep cave system. She heard more noises from behind her, and ran into the cave.

She skittered on the wet floor, and found that the cave ended at a river. Someone had left her a boat, and she hopped in, moving away from the small dock and heading through the cave. It didn't take long for her to find another dock, and she pulled up next to it and hopped out. She looped the rope around a post, and realized that she was back where the merchant was.

"Hello?" She called, walking back around to the desk. The merchant was still there. "Hey."

"Ello Stranga. What can I do for you?" The girl was leaning on the counter, tapping a rifle cartridge against the surface.

"Oh, well, I just wanted to let you know I found a boat, and I tied it to your dock. Is that okay?" Leona was feeling anxious, worried more about Ash than ever. After what happened after the lake incident, Leona was worried that the same thing may have happened, or be happening, to Ash.

The merchant made a surprised sound. "That's where I left it…" She muttered to herself, before looking up and staring at Leona. Leona shifted, uncomfortable with how intense the merchant was. Leona was about to speak again, when the merchant looked away and started speaking again.

"It's fine there. Be careful, Stranga." The girl then turned away, and started to riffle around in her boxes, totally ignoring Leona.

Leona quickly left the area, climbing the ladders, and came out into the rain. She could hear chatter from ahead, and without a backwards look, raced into the next area, the round one where she'd heard the loud wheezing. There were Ganados all around the area, most of them up high on walkways, operating several mechanisms.

"Shit, what the hell's going on?" She growled, pulling out the rifle. She was low on handgun bullets, and she didn't want to waste her resources trying to shoot the people off of the walkways. With a bang, the exit opposite of her slammed closed, and as she turned to run back the way she'd come, it was closed as well. Obviously that's what the levers the villagers had been operating did.

"Aw crap…" None of the men above her were taking any sort of action against her, other than closing the gate, and they all appeared to be leaving, and quickly. That was worrying. Leona moved into the middle of the circular area just as 5 of the villagers ran out of what looked like a cave, trying to drag something out after themselves. It, whatever it was, was having none of that though, and a giant hand reached out and flung two of the rope handlers into one of the walls.

Leona pulled her rifle up as the thing crawled out of its hole and grabbed a Ganado. It was a large, hulking thing, and it stuck the Ganado in its mouth and began to chew, before spitting out the mangled corpse and roaring at Leona. It reached for her, but she quickly moved out of the way and aimed the rifle at the monster's face.

She was shooting at it, trying to hit it in its most vulnerable areas, which she assumed would be its eyes and face, when it groaned and kneeled on the ground. Something, a parasite, burst from its back, and Leona got an idea. She dropped the rifle, ran up to the monster and climbed onto its back.

It didn't react much while she was climbing it, but when she pulled out her knife and started hacking at the parasite, the monster yowled and shook, trying to dislodge her. As the tremors became more violent, Leona jumped away and scrambled to grab her rifle again. Quickly reloading it, she spun just in time to throw herself to the ground as the thing swung a tree trunk at her.

"Shit!" Leona rolled away before scrambling to her feet. She took aim again as the beast tossed the tree away, and resumed shooting it in the face. Unfortunately, as she was shooting, the monster managed to grab her, causing her to drop the rifle again. As it squeezed her, Leona reached up and pulled out her knife. She began to stab into the monsters hand, taking several minutes before the monster dropped her. Leona didn't bother to go after her rifle, drawing her handgun as she wheezed in pain.

Before she could take her next shot, a loud howl echoed through the area. Leona looked up, and noticed the dog, the one that had been in the bear trap, was standing above on the walkway. It jumped down, and started running between the giant's legs, leaving Leona free to take some shots.

She got two good shots in, and again the monster fell as the parasite erupted from its back. The dog then ran off, leaving Leona alone with the collapsed monster. Ignoring her pained ribs, she ran up the monsters arm and began knifing the parasite. This time, the shuddering was more violent, and Leona rolled off the things back, watching as it clawed at the thing sticking out of it. Taking advantage of how distracted the thing was, Leona pulled some leaves off one of her herbs and began to chew, not even bothering to saturate the plant in water first. Her pain immediately stopped, and she felt what almost was like a high. Smiling widely, she dove across the arena and scooped up her rifle.

The monsters attention was back on her, but she didn't seem to care, as she resumed shooting. Again the monster collapsed, and Leona ran up to it and slashed at the parasite. When she jumped off this time, the monster stood, wobbling slightly, before it started to collapse. Leona back flipped out of the way, still holding her rifle, and the monster hit the ground with a thud. The monster dead, Leona allowed herself to sit and check her injuries while the gates both rose.

"Ow…" She pressed her ribs, trying to see if they were broken. She wasn't able to tell though, and decided to check them out better once she found Ash. Leona stood, checking how much ammo she had.

'I should be okay, so long as nothing attacks me head on.' Her medicinal high was fading, and as she began to walk back to the church, it began to rain harder. Leona slipped and slid through the mud as she went through the door, to the wooden walkway over a body of water. Leona took more care walking over the planks, not wanting to slip and fall into the water below. She reached the other side, and as she started forward on solid ground she heard a howl.

That was her only warning as a wolf sprang on her, reveling its infection as its head split and parasitic tentacles tried to choke her. Leona struggled to draw her weapon, but was only able to grab her knife. With a shout, she shoved it into the animal's head, before rolling the body off of hers.

'Even dogs now too? Jesus, what next? Rats? Bats? Lord…'

She picked herself up and walked to the church door, pulling out the emblem and sticking it into the slot. With a click the door opened, and Leona slid inside, thankful to be momentarily dry. The church appeared to be empty, so Leona took the chance to lift the bottom of her shirt to check her ribs. Nothing felt broken, but she was bruised so she took the time to press her dampened herb to her skin. She, rather than standing for some time with her shirt pulled up and a plant pressed to her skin, just left it against her skin, and pulled her shirt down.

Now that her bruises had been checked out, Leona began exploring. Her look around the lower levels revealed nothing but a few shotgun shells and handgun bullets, and after a backwards glance at the door, climbed a ladder that was in the back to the second floor. There was no one roaming around the balconies, but there was one room. It, however, was blocked off by a gate.

"…"Leona silently looked around, trying to find a way to get to the room. 'I bet that's where Ash is being held…'

The gate was sturdy, and she could find no way to get across the room from the balcony, but as she watched the chandelier sway slightly, she had an idea. She ran at the light and jumped twice, only briefly staying on the light fixture before landing on the opposite side. There was a grand portrait of an older woman, who Leona was sure was the leader of the church, and perhaps the cult.

Walking to the door, she placed one hand on her weapon, and the other on the doorknob. She took a deep breath, and pushed open the door. She stepped into the room, sweeping for enemies and Ash, when she was hit on the back of a head.

"Oof!" She dropped and rolled, pulling her weapon and pointing it at her attacker. She didn't shoot though, her vision still clearing when she heard someone swear.

"Oh fuck. Oh my god I'm sorry I thought you were that weird witch again. Are you okay?" Her vision clear again, Leona took Ash Graham's hand, allowing him to help pull her to her feet.

The young man looked worried, concerned that his attack had done damage perhaps, but didn't drop the large piece of wood he'd hit her with. He was being cautious, and that reassured Leona. She didn't want to be escorting some crybaby around. She was glad his appearance still matched the picture she was given, as the President had mentioned that his hair colour changed almost daily. At the moment, it was a bright green, somewhat dulled by dirt and dust and shaved on one side, and he also had several piercings. Leona really didn't care what he looked like though. She was just happy to see that he look uninjured.

'Maybe whatever they were going to do to him hasn't happened yet…' She thought to herself, before answering his question.

"I'm fine. My name is Leona Kennedy. I've been sent by the agency, and your mother, to find and extract you. Are you injured?" She was annoyed that Ash had managed to get one over on her, but the last few hours hadn't exactly been going her way anyway, so she mentally forgave him.

"Uh…I'm sorry, but do you have any id I can look at?" Ash accepted Leona's id, looking it over carefully. Finally, he returned it and put his piece of plywood on the floor. "So, my mother really sent you? You'd think she wouldn't want anything to do with me, considering how vocal I've been about some of her policies…"

Leona had heard that Ash's views had gotten him, and his mother, in hot water many times, but she didn't know he openly had protested her policies.

"Yes, she personally requested me. She seemed rather upset after receiving the first ransom letter. Anyways," Leona headed off any complaints coming from Ash, "We should get going. I can't seem to get any reception in this place, and I need to call and find out where we're getting picked up. Come on."

Ash picked his plank of wood back up and followed Leona outside. She noticed that the gate around the door was no longer up, but Leona paid no real attention to it. They rushed to the ladder, Leona skipping it entirely, and Ash skipping several rungs. Moving out into the main area of the church, a noise made them turn.

"I will have him returned, thank you." An elderly woman, swathed in purple robes, was standing in front of the churches alter. Two towns people moved in beside her, both with crossbows in hand, while several others stepped out behind Leona and Ash, blocking any escape.

"Oh?" Leona moved into a defensive position, her hand on her holster. Ash also raised his plank of wood, but he looked just as confident as Leona felt. This was bad. "And…who are you, exactly?"

The woman sighed. "Oh, well, if you absolutely must know, I am Oliveia Saddler. I am the master of this…fine religious order. Now…?"

Leona scoffed. "And did you really think it'd be as easy as asking me to return him? What are you up too? Why did you take him?" She crossed her arms after checking to see that the villagers behind them were doing nothing to take them into custody. Ash set his plank down, trying to falsify bravado. It wasn't really working.

"We only want to show the world our power. And what better way than to show the United States that even their precious president's son is not safe? Of course, we weren't planning on keeping him. We've given him our gift, now it only takes time before the happy reunion between mother and son turns sour." Saddler laughed quietly as Leona tried to puzzle out what she meant.

"Gift…?" Ash said, absentmindedly rubbing at his neck. He pulled his hand away and noticed a small speck of blood. "What? Did-did you do something to me?"

Saddler just laughed. "We only gave you a part of our power. I did think I would be able to glean some of the president's wealth before her son returned, but your appearance means that will not happen. It's a pity, such a large organization needs funds to keep our church running and we could have used the assistance."

"Really? I didn't think faith and money were two things that went together." Leona noticed a small window off to the side, suspiciously unguarded.

"Oh no, Madam Kennedy, they fit together perfectly. But, I did forget something most important that you should know. You too, have our gift. It is my hope that you will return to the States, under my complete control. Once the eggs hatch and take control, I'll be able to use you to spread our cause. Isn't that just an intriguing way to go about it?" Leona narrowed her eyes, also rubbing at her neck as Saddler spoke.

"Just another boring form of terrorism! And it's probably nothing we can't stop!" Leona snarled, angry that she too had been infected. 'It must have happened after I found Louisa…' she thought, tensing.

Saddler waved her hand, and her henchmen pointed crossbows at the two of them. Leona grabbed Ash's arm and ran for the unguarded window, and they crashed through it as the arrows hit the walls right where they'd been standing. Leona rolled before she drew her weapon, pointing it at the window, but no one moved to look out at them.

"Jesus, what was that?" Ash asked, sitting on the floor. "And what did that witch mean, about her 'gift'? Are we going to be okay?"

"Hell if I know. But we need to get out of here, and call this in. I'm sure we'll be able to fix this. Come on, follow me." Leona pulled Ash up, before putting her hand on the door knob of the small storage room they were in and pushing it open, out into the rain.


	7. Aden's Story part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops I accidentally gave the Merchant an implied backstory oh well :B

It had been easy for Aden to reach the Village chief's house after ringing the church bell. He'd taken a short nap, and after he'd woken the villagers had dispersed. When he exited the church the villagers were back to their usual routines, whatever those may be, and Aden had no trouble sneaking past them.

Upon entering what he assumed was the chief's bedroom, he was surprised to see the merchant girl again, but didn't freak out at her this time. Aden chose to ignore her for the time being, and instead picked up a book someone had left lying on a desk, leafing through it as he waited for Wesker to call.

He was reading quite an interesting account of the villages history, occasionally asking the merchant questions, when he heard a beep coming from his PDA.

"Aden here." He said, barely even looking at Wesker.

"That researcher we hired has been captured."

"That hussy? What happened now?"

Wesker avoided the question. "She's being held in a house past the farm. We can't let her die, we need her to get at the sample. She needs to be alive for our plan to go smoothly." Wesker's face loomed at Aden, before the screen went blank.

"…Louisa Sera. The only person more high maintenance than me." Aden smiled, putting his communicator back where it belonged.

He turned to the merchant, and smiled. "Can I ask you for some information?"

"Info's free, Stranga'. What'da wanna know?"

"You heard my conversation. I want to know about this house Sera's being held in, and maybe something about this one."

"Well Stranga, this is the Chief's house. This is where all decisions about the village are made. The other house…I'm not so sure about. I think it might have belonged to a more prominent family who…didn't survive. I heard that's where they hold people before infection. But that's all I can say. You gonna buy somethin' now, Stranga'?"

Aden thought for a moment, but decided against it. "I do not believe I require your services at this time. I don't think I have enough for anything anyway."

The merchant cocked her head and smiled under her scarf. "If you say so, Stranga. Just to let you know I have this new and I need to sell it soon. Can't keep my wares on me for too long."

"Oh? What is it then?" Aden asked.

The Merchant opened her coat and pulled out a case. "This." She opened the case, and pulled out a rifle, gleaming and new.

"Oh, well, that certainly is an interesting item. But tell me, why are you selling to me? I'd thought you'd be selling to your friends out there." Aden gestured towards the window, a questioning look on his face.

The Merchant scowled, even Aden could see it beneath her scarf. "Listen, Stranga. Do you want this gun or not? This is a onetime deal, and I will not be sellin' my wares to those…animals."

"Well then," Aden held his hands up in what he hoped was a placating manner. "How much do you want for this beauty?"

The Merchant sniffed, obviously slightly annoyed, before naming her price and holding out her hand. Aden blinked, before digging around, trying to find what money he had one him. After several minutes, he placed the money in the Merchant's hand.

She counted it over, still giving him the stink-eye, before nodding and sliding the case over towards him. "It comes with a strap and a clip of ammo. I'll see you later, Stranga."

Aden picked up the gun, looking through the scope, before slinging it over his back. He moved to the door intent on leaving, but paused.

"Oh," Aden turned back to the Merchant. "I almost forgot. Did you put that key somewhere useful?" he asked, his hand on the door handle.

"It's in that desk there, Stranga." The merchant gestured to the desk, and Aden narrowed his eyes.

"And…how do you even know Leona is going to come through here?" He asked. He didn't get an answer though, and the girl brought a finger up to where her lips were under her scarf, and shook her head.

He sighed in reply, and left the room, before moving through the rest of the house, eliminating any hostiles that were lingering inside. Satisfied that his investigation of the house was done, he opened the door, intent on investigating its surrounding area. Unfortunately, almost as soon as he stepped out of the house, a noise he'd already heard enough of started up.

"Oh hell. How many chainsaw wielding lunatics are in this village? Was there a sale on burlap sacks and chainsaw oil in the next town over or something?" He ground as he pulled up the rifle. He'd might as while try it out while he had a…willing target.

Looking through the scope as the chainsaw wielding enemy came into view, Aden began to shoot, hitting the man in the head with four shots. The person stumbled, falling to his knees, but didn't let go of his chainsaw. Aden then switched to his handgun and attacked, not giving the maniac a chance to stand began to shoot. Eventually the man stilled, falling flat onto the ground. Aden didn't bother to check him for anything and instead he opened the gate that led back to the village, hurriedly leaving the area.

Stepping inside, he was immediately set upon but the villagers he'd avoided on his first run through.

"Oh ho, okay then…" He started to shoot, quickly taking down his attackers and separating them from their weapons and goods, before heading towards a gate on the other side of the village. Luckily for him, it was a short walk.

He reached the gate and pushed it open, slipping inside the farmyard and looking around. A few men were in the yard, but Aden slipped past them and grappled on top of the barn. From there he could see the entire area, but he could see nothing of interest, and, after checking his map on the PDA, jumped down and went through the gate. He made his way down the steps, which were littered with bits of gravel. Reaching the bottom with little trouble (he'd grappled up on top of a thin rope bridge and taken out two none the wiser villagers), Aden took note of the pile of smashed rock partially obscuring the path and walked through the tunnel.

He jogged to the half destroyed house that was in a suspiciously enemy-free area, and was about to make his way to the house Sera was being held, when a noise stopped him.

Drawing his weapon, he flattened against what was left of the wall and looked out. A large group of the Ganado's walked out of the other house, four of them carrying two people. First to come out was Louisa, the scientist limp in the villager's arms. That, Aden was expecting. What he wasn't, was, once again, Leona.

She too was laying limp in two villager's arms, her jacket missing and head lolling to the side. Aden quietly watched them pass, and waited for all the enemies to leave before swearing out-loud.

"Shit, Leona. How the hell did you manage to get yourself caught like that? I know you can do better…" He sighed and pushed his hair away from his face, frustrated. "How the hell am I supposed to be operating from the shadows when you're around and when my contact keeps getting caught?"

He quickly made his way back through the tunnel, up the stairs, and through the farm with no trouble, but once he exited back to the village proper, he was swamped with enemies. Aden fought his way through them, cursing his existence.

'Oh fucking hell I really don't have time for this!' He thought as he kicked out at a Ganado brandishing an axe. He knew that the village Chief would most likely be bringing the two of them to her house. He'd seen the brute

The swarm of Ganado delayed him though, and he found himself spending much more time than he wanted to fighting them. Annoyed, he finally just dashed through them, shoving enemies away as he moved closer to the gate.

Aden made it to the gate, but again found himself confronting more enemies than he felt confident fighting. After several attempts to thin out the crowd, he instead pulled out his grapple and pulled himself over the gate instead.

Now safely on the other side, with no Ganados in the area as far as he could see, Aden adjusted his outfit before moving towards the house. He didn't want to expose himself to Leona so early, but if she needed help, then he would have to show himself.

'I'd really rather not reveal myself at all, but…' As he neared the house, he could some kind of commotion from inside. Wanting to get a closer look, he pulled himself onto the roof, and walked over to where the noise was coming from. He peered over the roof into the room, in time to see Leona flung to the ground, the village chief standing over her.

Without really thinking, he set a grapple, before sliding down and taking aim with his handgun. Luckily for him, he still had some bullets. He began to shoot, getting three solid hits before he was forced to grapple up as the chief lunged for him. She crashed through the window and Aden sat on the roof, a small amount of fear flooding his body. If he'd been one second slower, if that woman had hit him…

Aden shook his head, before jumping down. 'Hopefully Leona's still inside.' He thought as he started down the path, before grinding to a halt. The Chief was there, with another small army of Ganados. Aden readied his gun, ready to fight, before he felt something prick him. He fell to the ground, and the only thoughts that went through his mind before it all went black were who sold these jokers tranq guns, and why was that woman wearing Leona's coat.

Sometime had passed, Aden could tell, and as he started to stir he could hear chanting. At first he was content to lay where he was a while longer, waiting for the people to leave and for his headache to go away, but then he heard the scrape of something metal against the ground.

In a flash, he flipped himself up and over, only getting nicked by the large ax that a lone man was attempting to hit him with. Aden spun around, his hand on his gun, and two more men appeared, one armed with a torch, and another with a piece of dynamite.

"Well?" He asked them, waiting for them to make the first move. He didn't wait long, and the man with the dynamite lit it with his companions torch, and got ready to toss it at Aden. Instead, Aden shut the explosive out of the man's hand and ducked. The dynamite exploded, as he expected, and the three men were destroyed.

Aden didn't bother to see if the remains had anything of value, not wanting to get anymore gore on him, and jumped down the ladder. Into the direct path of another man with dynamite.

This time, the man threw it before Aden could grab his gun, so Aden pushed past the Ganados, exiting the caves he was in as the second explosion triggered a small cave-in.

"Hmph…" Aden turned from the caves, looking up at the ski lift instead. "Now, why isn't that working?" He began up the stairs, which lead to the loading area, where the cars were stalled.

Not seeing anything that could have stopped the cars outside, Aden went into the control room, and he started to poke and prod at the buttons.

"How do I get this thing working?" He muttered, not expecting a reply. But he got one.

"Ya need a key, Stranga. The console's locked, ya know." The Merchant was standing in the corner, and Aden could tell she was laughing at him.

"Well, yes I knew that! I was just hoping that there was an override of some sort. I was hoping I didn't need a key. I mean, where the hell am I going to find it?" Aden leaned against the console, frustrated. All this, and he still hadn't found Sera! Wesker was bound to be getting impatient.

"Well, ya can ask me, for starters. Ya know, just in case I know somethin', Stranga." The Merchant said.

"Okay… Where is it?" Aden asked.

"Oh, they took it down to the barn. One of those… hmmm… one of them. With the-," She imitated a chainsaw noise, and Aden groaned.

"Really? You know, if that's true, that will be the fourth one I'm encountered with a chainsaw." Aden shook his head and moved to go.

"Stranga, don't you want to see if I have anythin' new?" The Merchant asked, but she didn't move.

Aden snorted. "I don't know, and I don't particularly care. Are you the one outfitting those things with tranq guns? Because I am unimpressed. And seeing as you're the only person who seems to be selling weapons, I doubt it's anyone but you." He then had to duck as she threw a key at him, swearing in Spanish, before pushing past him and stomping down the stairs.

"Huh. Okay." He bent to pick up the key, which was, unfortunately, not the lift key, and moved forwards to see what she had with her that she'd left behind. It was a TMP, but unloaded and partially taken apart. It appeared that she'd been cleaning it before he'd stepped in, and apparently insulted her. After a second look at the gun, he decided to leave it.

"It's not worth her wrath. She has been helpful after all…" Aden headed down the stairs, making his way towards the ground. He stepped off of the walkway onto a dirt path, and followed it down to a large gate.

"What is it with these people and gates? Don't they have anything else better to do than hoard chainsaws and build giant gates to impede me?" Aden sighed, before grappling over the gate, not even bothering to open it. After a short walk down a hill, he came to the barn.

"Okay, I can do this. I've survived three other times, right?" He double checked his ammo, and leveled his rifle, before inserting the key and opening the door.

The rifle proved to be a poor idea, as a spotlight turned to shin on him as the door opened. He quickly swapped it for the shotgun, and began to shoot at the raggedy woman who'd started her chainsaw and jumped out of the hay-loft. Most of the shots hit her, but other hit the other Ganados who were also trying to swarm him. He finally managed to get her to fall, but before he could take more shots, one of the villagers grabbed him from behind.

"What the hell?! Let go of me!" Aden started to struggle, but more of the Ganados grabbed on, and he found himself unable to get away as the chainsaw woman stood and advanced on him. Any distance he'd made between them was disappearing fast, when he heard the shot.

The woman collapsed, half her head gone, and the Ganados loosened their grip on him, unsure of what had happened. He took the chance to break away, and started to shoot. As he thinned the group, he realized that the lifesaving shot had come from the Merchant, who was standing near the entrance to the area, picking off villagers with her rifle.

Between the two of them, the group was quickly dispatched, leaving a scowling Merchant and an embarrassed Aden.

'Well, now I absolutely have to apologize…' He though, putting his gun away. "So-"

"Ya didn't take the gun." She interrupted, sounding both angry and confused. "Ya could have taken it, why didn't ya?"

"I-" Aden stopped, confused. "I wouldn't have just taken it. You're helpful, and you're not trying to kill me…I think." He smiled at her, and she slowly lowered her gun. "Besides, I'm not a thief." It was a complete lie, but she didn't know.

There were several more seconds of silence before she spoke again. "That one, the 'chainsaw' one. She is wearing the key around her neck." She turned to leave, but Aden stopped her.

"Wait. Uh, I just wanted to apologize. For what I said earlier. It was unfair for me to assume you'd deceived me. And, thank you. For saving me." He rubbed the back of his neck, hoping the Merchant would take the apology and the thanks.

"…Just don't do that again, Stranga. I don't need you tellin me that I'm betrayin my family by helpin these farm animals." She turned to go. "Apology accepted, and I couldn't not help ya. You didn't take my gun." She left the area, and Aden started the task of looking through peoples clothing for things and retrieving keys. He was sure to shut the chainsaw off before approaching the woman though, just in case she managed to regenerate her head or something.

'Please, you're imaginations getting the best of you. There's no way something like this, or a zombie, could get shot in the head and then fix itself.'

Key in hand, he returned to the control room, and noticed that the Merchant had moved down onto the ground, torches lit and items laid out. He took a long glance as he walked past, but didn't stop. He didn't think he'd be chatting with the Merchant for a few hours now.

He reached the console and unlocked it, before pressing a few buttons. With a screech, the lift started to move, slowly cycling around its track, and Aden walked out to the platform. When the next lift came around, he stepped out onto it, riding it up to the other platform.

Stepping off of the lift, he stood at the platform, looking over the area in front of him. There were two pathways, but he could see no way to get through the one area, the gated area so high that there was no way his grapple could propel him over.

He left the lift platform and strolled down the path, nothing of interest for him to see, and grappled over a different gate. The first area was empty, littered with tiny houses that Aden discovered held half-full boxes of ammunition. He cleaned out the huts, before walking to a locked up door. Aden was about to shoot at the lock, but he noticed that it wasn't quite shut completely. He pulled at it and it clicked open, letting him pull it off of the door. He stepped through, and started to walk towards the exit, when something large jumped down between him and the exit.

A huge dust cloud rose from the ground, and Aden waved his hand in front of his face, trying to clear the air so he could both see and breathe again. As the dust began to settle, a monster appeared.

"Oh." Aden said, pulling out his gun and looking up at the giant in front of him. It roared at him, and slammed its fist into the ground. Aden jumped back, creating more distance between it and him.

"Ok, hopefully I don't need to be saved again." Aden looked around the area, trying to see a way out of the tight quarters. He'd back all the way to the door, when he noticed a hinged piece of wood holding up a bunch of boulders. Taking careful aim, he shot the support beam, and sent the rocks tumbling onto the monstrosity.

It tried to move, but the boulders held it down. Aden took a moment to put it out of its misery, two shots to its face, before climbing over the boulders and exiting the area.

He stood for a moment and watched the rain pouring, and momentarily wondered why it wasn't storming back where he had been.

"Must be some crazy weather system around here, he muttered, before spotting someone familiar leaving the house in the middle of the clearing.

"…Leave it up to you, Leona." Louisa was walking away from the house, and Aden stepped out to meet her.

"Ah! Senor, got a light? And maybe some smokes too?" The Spanish woman was soaked, and a trail of blood was running down her face.

Aden ignored her questions. "Where's the sample, Sera?"

"Ohh-kay then, right to the good stuff huh. I was just about to get it. Care to come with me?" Louisa began to walk past Aden, who shook his head.

"Hm, as fun as that sounds, you really should have brought it with you." Aden sighed, watching Louisa walk away. Aden was about to leave, when Louisa turned.

"So, where do you stand in this? I know you're not really doing this for that woman." Louisa asked, only slightly confused.

"Oh, there are many things that are not worth knowing, and that is one of them. Be careful of asking questions." Aden replied, sighing.

"Whoa, okay then. I don't really care to know who you really are. Just get rid of that old cow and her religious nuts." With that, Louisa walked away, slipping between the slats of the fence and disappearing into the surrounding forest.

"Huh…Be careful, Louisa." Aden muttered, before turning away. Leona was fine, Louisa was going to get the sample, and he knew just where to hide.

Aden grappled up on top of the house, watching as Leona and Ash walked out of the house, looked over the two exits to the area, and went through where Aden had entered. He waited for them to leave, before turning to look at the silhouette of a castle, hiding beyond the forest.


	8. Cheer Captain of the Year

Unfortunately for the two of them, it was still raining when they entered the church yard, and the cold shock made Ash's teeth chatter.

"I- I thought Spain was supposed to be warm!" he said, drenched. He was wearing a t-shirt and jacket, but they didn't seem to be that warm.

"Well, next time try to get kidnapped when it's not the tail end of fall." Leona replied, narrowing her eyes. There were flashes of light in the graveyard, and she realized that there were at least fifty or so villagers making their way up the path towards them.

"Stay here." Leona said, and Ash complied. She was glad he wasn't screaming or cowering, but also that he wasn't trying to dive into the fight. His file didn't say a whole lot about his personality, other than that he disagreed with his mother.

Leona crept forwards, not moving to far away though, and spotted, for some reason, a cart loaded with explosives. 'This seems like some kind of set up, but…' Leona shook her head, aimed at the cart, and fired.

It lit up the sky for a moment, before the cart started rolling down the hill, hitting almost all of the villagers heading their way.

"Holy fuck." She heard Ash whisper, before she motioned for him to move forward.

"Stick close to me, I don't want any of them grabbing you, and I don't want you getting hit in any crossfire." Leona said, before pulling up her rifle and picking off the remaining villagers.

"Where are we headed?" Ash whispered back, what was left of his hair plastered to the side of his head.

"I'm not sure yet… I can't seem to get Hunnigan to answer me. We might as while head back to the village though. The storm might be causing some interference."

Leona stood up, doing a quick sweep with her gun, but didn't see anyone else, besides the two of them.

"So…" Ash started to talk as they walked down towards the passage in the crypt. "What's this place like? I sure as hell didn't see much on my way here."

Leona shrugged. "Eh. It's your usual back water village. Looks like there's about 4 houses, and they even have a handy bonfire for roasting cops. A prime place for a vacation."

"Yeah, sure sounds like it. So, what exactly are we going to do once we get to this village? Just hang around until someone comes and gets us?" Ash asked, ducking under a low hanging tree.

Leona sighed. "Not exactly. I'll need to try and get in contact with my supervisor, then we have to get to where evac will be picking us up. Not to mention that you are still wanted by these people. We'll probably have to deal with them again." Leona stopped to peer into the crypt. "Okay, through here. Anyways, there was what Saddler said about her 'gift'. Who know what that is, or what it'll do. We might have to figure that out too." Leona pushed open the door, and stepped out into the cave system.

"Ello again, Stranga." The merchant said, giving Leona a wave and ignoring Ash.

"Hey. I'm not even going to bother asking how you keep doing this who transportation thing. Have you gotten anything new in the past-"Leona checked her watch, "-hour and a half?"

"Hmmm, let me check, Stranga." The Merchant turned and began to riffle through her things, and Ash leaned over to Leona.

"Is-isn't she like the other people?" He asked, and Leona shook her head.

"Na. She's cool." The Merchant turned back to the two of them, shaking her head. "I've got nothin new, Stranga. I thought I had somethin, but…" She shook her head, and Leona and Ash moved on.

"So, what. She's the only Spanish person not trying to murder us then?" Ash asked as they continued through the tunnel.

"Looks like it. Wait, no. I ran into another person, and it looked like the cult was trying to do away with her too." Leona replied.

"Oh, well it's nice to know it's not just us." Ash then fell silent, fiddling with the sleeves of his jacket. The silence continued as they climbed the ladder out of the tunnel, but broke when Leona opened the door.

The rain was still pouring and Leona almost missed the villager that rushed towards them, reaching for Ash.

"Shit!" He yelled, stumbling back as Leona shot the woman, causing her to fall.

"Come on, up here!" Leona pointed to a tower that was right beside them. "We should be okay up there for a bit!"

Ash nodded, and climbed up the ladder as Leona shot at the villager. He got to the top as Leona started to climb, and he yelled down to her.

"There's more of them coming this way!" and Leona swore. She got to the top and swung herself up, before looking down. There were three people looking up at her, and one of them tried to throw an axe at her. He obviously couldn't hit her, and instead it fell, hitting one of his companions, who started yelling.

As the other one started to climb the ladder, Leona's communicator beeped. "Oh, for the love of- Hey Ash, can you hold this for me so I can talk to our contact and shoot these jokers?"

"Oh! Yeah." He pushed the buttons, before turning it towards her.

"Leona?" Hunnigan called, confused. "I- where are you?"

"Oh! Sorry." Ash adjusted how he was holding the communicator, and Leona looked up from shooting people off of the ladder.

"Hey Hunnigan. We have a problem." Leona turned back to the ladder and scowled. "And I only wish it was the villagers trying to kill us right now."

"Actually," Ash spoke up. "I think they only want to kill you. They probably just want me back."

"Yea, but that's not the point." Leona shot another man off the ladder, and he took four more people down with him. The axed villager was now beating the man who'd hit her with the axe with a stick, and Leona shook her head. "The cult leader, Saddler, did something to us."

"What did he do?" Hunnigan asked, and Leona could tell he was worried.

"Well, we don't know." Leona let Ash answer Hunnigan as she drew her knife and started hacking at someones fingers. "She said she gave us her 'gift', and she was going to control us, but I don't have a clue."

"Oh. Well, that's an issue." Leona could hear Hunnigan tapping at his keyboard, trying to figure out a solution. The axe throwing Ganado was now dead, bludgeoned by the other one, and Leona shot her.

"What should we do now, Hunnigan?" Leona asked, standing up and taking the communicator from Ash, who went back to looking out over the village.

"Uh, okay. Listen, we're going to go ahead and get you, and we can deal with this 'gift' after you're both safe. There's a clearing just past the farm, and that's where evac is heading for you. They should be there right before you get there. Stay safe." Leona nodded and closed the communicator, before sighing.

"Okay, Ash, follow me. We're going to get out of here."

"Got it. So, lead the way?" Leona started down the ladder, Ash following after her, and when she reached the bottom, she riffled through the villagers' clothes.

"What are you doing?" Ash asked, confused and a bit disgusted.

"Well, normally I'd never do something like loot the dead, but for some reason these guys are carrying around ammunition and grenades. And if they have money, then I can buy stuff from that merchant."

"Oh…" Ash waited awkwardly for Leona to finish checking the bodies, before obediently following after her.

'Huh…At least I didn't get some shrieking cry-baby. This should go smoothly…' The walk to the farm gate was mostly uneventful, for such a short distance, but Leona again wondered about the minds of the people as she carefully set off four bear traps.

Leona carefully pushed the gate open, and stuck her head through it, only to see several villagers milling around.

"Shit. There's more of them in here too." She sighed, before noticing a dumpster. She pulled Ash after her, and poked her head inside. It was empty and smelt clean, and Ash got in with little reluctance.

"Listen, stay here until I let you know that the coast is clear. I'll come and knock on the lid four times if it's safe. Otherwise, don't open the lid at all."

"Yes Ma'am." Ash winked and Leona closed the lid, before pulling out her rifle. She didn't want to have the same thing happen like last time she was here, and took a careful look around.

She could see 3 men walking around, and she quickly separated their brains from their bodies. Then she moved into the buildings and cleared them out. The rifle was highly effective, and she was able to take the Ganados out with no difficulty at all.

She jogged back to the dumpster, and banged on the lid. Ash climbed out, and they quickly made their way to the gate. As Ash was jumping into the fenced off area, Leona began to shove at the gate.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, and Leona nodded.

"It's locked. All these gates have a plank of wood on the other side, so if I got over there, we could get through…" They stood there for a couple seconds, before Ash spoke again.

"It may be hard to believe, but I'm also the captain of the college cheer team. I can boost you up no problem." He offered, but Leona shook her head.

"I can't leave you here alone."

"…Not even for a few minutes?" He asked, skeptically. "Look, here." He grabbed a piece of wood from a box Leona had smashed. "If anyone attacks me, I'll just hit them with this, and you can save my ass after you get the gate open, okay?"

Leona hesitated for a moment before agreeing. There was no use standing around, they needed to get past the gate. Ash proved true to his word, and Leona was able to get over the gate with a foot of air to spare. Getting the warped plywood away from the door took some time, but when she pulled the gate open, Ash walked through, no worse for wear.

They walked down the path some more, and Leona smiled when she saw some familiar blue flames.

"Oh good, the Merchant is here."

She moved ahead of Ash, ignoring his cry of 'how can she be here she was in that cave back there wasn't she?!' and stopped in front of the girl.

"Oh, ello Stranga. I just found what I thought I had before, in my old storehouse. What do ya think?" She pulled out a TPM, and Leona started to look it over.

"You're making this hard for me. I mean, I want this, but am I going to be able to get ammo for it. Oh, and I guess I need to know the price…And where I'd store it." She returned the gun and started rummaging in her pockets.

"Well, Stranga, ya should have no problem findin ammo. Those animals broke into my ammo store an took almost everythin. That's why I can only give ya what comes with the weapon." The Merchant sighed.

"Oh, well then that makes sense why I keep finding ammo on them." Leona said.

"Well, ya interested? I'll even give ya a deal." Five minutes later Leona was holding the TMP and fastening a clip onto her belt. She slid the gun into its holder, and waved goodbye to the Merchant.

"Is…is it even safe to have than many guns hanging offa you like that?" Ash asked as they crossed a bridge, but before Leona could answer, Hunnigan beeped her.

"Leona, I have some, uh, bad news."

"Oh no, please don't say that." Leona groaned. Of course there was bad news.

"Sorry, but there is. Listen, we've lost contact with our chopper. We need you both to go to the rendezvous point while we try and get another chopper headed your way and wait until further instructions."

"Okay, understood. I'll let you know if anything happens." Leona closed the communicator as Ash groaned.

"Hey, Leona. You sure about your pal there? Because that sure is a lot of people headed our way." Ash was looking past Leona, to the cabin, and Leona was looking past him, back to the merchant. Or, where the merchant would be if there wasn't a mob of Ganados moving towards them.

"There's more on the other side too?" Leona asked, and Ash nodded. "Oh okay. Look," Leona turned. "Let's get to that cabin. We can try and hold them off there."

The pair ran to the cabin, Ash running in first, and Leona skidded in, grabbing the door and slamming it closed. She tried to find a lock, but there only was an empty latch area.

"Leona!" She spun, startled, and grabbed the bar of wood that Louisa tossed at her. "Use this to keep the door shut!" Leona jammed the bar against the door, and Ash started to push a bookshelf over one of the unlatched windows.

"Louisa, what are you doing here? I thought you'd be out of here by now." Leona said, pushing a different bookshelf over a different window.

"Yeah, well, I tried. It's not that easy to get out of here though. Those things out there are everywhere!" Louisa snorted, before turning an appraising eye to Ash. "Well well well, if it isn't the president's son. You wouldn't think she'd let him out looking that that, now would you?"

Ash bristled, and shot back at the Spaniard. "Excuse me? The fact that my mother is the president does not dictate my dress code. I'll do what I want with my appearance, social status be damned. Got an issue with that?"

Louisa smirked. "Whoa there, don't you think you should introduce yourself before having a hissy fit?"

"Pft! You already know who I am, the president's son, right?" Ash turned his back on Louisa. "Leona, what do you want me to do now? If those people attack, I can't really do much."

"Can you shoot?" Leona asked.

"No, I've never learned. I was always leaning more towards strict gun controls, so…" Ash shrugged.

"Well, I have an idea. There's a wardrobe upstairs. You can hide in it while Leona and I kick some ass." Louisa pointed to the stairs.

"…Okay. I'll go hide there then." As Ash scuttled up the stairs, the barricades the three had put in place began to crumble.

"Ready for this?" Louisa asked, checking her gun.

"Born ready." Leona replied, back to the door. It appeared to be holding, so she had no worries about it.

As the shelves toppled and villagers started to climb in through the windows, Leona and Louisa started to take people down. The house was filled with screaming and gunfire, and there were enough breaks in the flow that the two women were able to search the bodies for more ammunition.

"Shit!" Louisa turned to face the stairs. "I think they've got ladders. They're getting in upstairs. Can you hold of down here while I make sure our colourful friend doesn't get found?"

"Yeah, go!" As Louisa made her way upstairs, Leona started to cut her way through the ranks, drawing her knife to keep the Ganados out of the house. Running between three windows, she stabbed out into the night, only drawing her weapons when a mutated Ganado made its way towards her.

Finally, Leona covered in scratches and blood, noticed that there was only one more enemy making its way towards the house. Taking careful aim with her rifle, she lined up the shit, before losing it to Louisa.

"Oi! That was my shot!" Leona yelled, and only heard laughter in reply. She was tossing the bodies out the window as Ash and Louisa came downstairs, Louisa with blood on her face, and Ash with an armload of ammo boxes.

At Leona's look, he explained. "Oh, well, Louisa only wanted the handgun bullets, so I grabbed the other stuff. This is what you need for that one, right?" He set the armful on the table, and tossed over a blue, still sealed box of ammo, which Leona compared it to what was in the TMP.

"Yeah, this is exactly what I need for this. Thanks for grabbing it for me."

"Well, now that that's dealt with, I really should be going." Louisa removed the bar over the door, and pulled it open. "I'd accompany you both, but I forgot something. I'll leave it up to you, Leona." She then slipped out into the rain, leaving Ash and Leona to watch after her, confused.

"Really? She forgot something here? And what exactly is she leaving up to you?" Ash asked, but Leona shrugged.

"I duuno. Maybe getting you out of here?" She picked through the boxes, filling her pockets. "…I don't think I can carry all of this. But I don't want to leave it all behind."

"Well, I'll take it then. I've got big enough pockets in my jacket." Ash started to put the remaining ammo in his pockets, and Leona got in touch with Hunnigan again.

"Hi, Hunnigan? Leona here. Listen, we have a small issue."

"Hm? What kind of small issue?" He asked. "We don't have a chopper ready yet, so…"

Leona shook her head. "No, that's not it. We need a different rendezvous location. I just dealt with a large scale attack, so the Ganados, and by association, Saddler, knows where we are. And, to make things better, the bridge we crossed is out of commission, so we can't head back to the village."

"Shit. Uh, okay, let me see…" Hunnigan started tapping on his keyboard. "Uh… Okay, I think I found another place for you to go. Head the other way out of that area, and follow a path northwest. There should be another clearing at the end with a place you two can hole up for a while." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Stay safe you two."

"We'll try to." Leona replied, before tucking the communicator away. Ash turned to her, his pockets full, and gave her a thumbs up.

"Time to head back out in the rain?" He asked, and Leona just smiled, holding the door open as the rain blew inside.

"Let's go."


	9. Barn O' Fire

By the time they left the house, Louisa had disappeared, but Leona wasn't worried.

"Well, she can take care of herself, so…" Leona let the rain wash off some of the blood, before noticing the Merchant had herself holed up in a tiny shack that was up against a tall wooden wall.

"You're not going to see if she has anything new?" Ash asked, but Leona shook her head.

"Nah. I literally just saw her, so it's not necessary. But the big question is this. Left or right?" Leona pointed to two giant gates with a switch situated between them. "The map I have says both gates go to the same area, so the issue is picking which one to go through."

"Uh…" Ash looked at both the gates, before picking. "Let's go with…the one on the right."

With a nod, Leona moved to the gate, and pushed against it. It opened, and they stepped though. The rain started to taper off, and both of them took a moment to squeeze the water out of their hair.

"You've got green on your hands now," Leona said with a laugh, and Ash smiled.

"Yeah, well I'd just re-dyed it, and I haven't had a chance to completely rinse the dye out. It usually takes me a couple of showers to get it all out, and I did get kidnapped. I don't think it's going to be an issue unless we run into a hair stylist." He started to wipe his hands on his pants as they walked through the canyon. At the end, there was a locked gate, and as they moved closer to the exit, several rocks tumbled down the side of the canyon.

"…" "Leona drew her handgun and motioned for Ash to move ahead of her. All of a sudden, it felt like there was something off about their situation…

It turned out to be a good idea, because as soon as Ash reached the locked gate, a giant monster, identical to the one Leona had killed previously, jumped down and swiped at them.

"What the fuck is that!?" Ash yelled, but Leona ignored him in favour of shooting the thing in the face.

It refused to fall just from handgun shots, so Leona grabbed out her TMP and took aim. Bullet casing bounced off of the ground as she fired, and as it fell, Ash started to pound a rock against the locked gate, trying to break it.

Leona clipped the gun back to her belt and pulled out her knife, scrambling up the monster and hacking away at its parasite. It groaned and swayed, trying to shake Leona off, and she jumped before it could try and grab her.

"I got the gate open!" Ash called to Leona, and she waved him off.

"Go through! I'll hang back and deal with this thing!" Leona shouted, before turning back to the monster. Thick blood was dripping down its face, making it roar as it tried to grab for Leona.

"Tch…" Leona began shooting again as the monster thrashed its way towards her. It wasn't moving too fast though, as it banged up against the walls of the canyon and its injuries kept it slow.

Leona's TPM eventually ran dry, and she briefly regretted not asking Ash for the ammo he had in his pockets. The monster was wavering though, so Leona put away the TMP and began shooting with her handgun again. She didn't want to waste any shotgun shells or rifle cartridges on the thing.

The monstrosity fell again, and she jumped on top of it, again hacking away at its parasite until it started to sway. She raised he gun again, but it was falling instead of attacking, and she jumped back as it crashed down.

Unable to go back the way they'd came, Leona went through the gate to go and find Ash after waiting to be sure that the monster was dead. The other side of the gate had several poorly constructed huts, and Ash was inside one of them, holding a few items.

"Are you okay?" He asked her, and Leona nodded.

"Yeah, I'd already run into one of those, so I knew how to take it down. Anyway, I should be asking if you're okay, not the other way around."

"Well, I only ran in here, I wasn't fighting anything, so there's no real reason to worry. Anyways, there were some things in here, so…" Ash handed over a grenade, carefully, and showed Leona a box of handgun ammo before shoving it in his jacket. He also passed over an old looking key.

"Great. Let's get going then. I get the feeling that this key opens that gate over there." The two of then quickly moved to the gate, and Leona unlocked it. As they stepped through the gate, the key disintegrated in Leona's hand.

They stepped out into the night, a cool breeze buffeting them, and the shadow of a castle in the distance. Leona could see the merchant on a platform and waved at her as they walked away from the gate.

"I don't trust her…" Ash muttered, looking over to the merchant.

"Huh? Why not?" Leona asked.

"I don't know…something about her just bugs me." Ash shrugged. "Not to mention that she seems like the only one other than Louisa who's willing to help us, and she manages to, like, teleport from place to place."

"Well, she's been a big help to me, so, until something happens to make me lose my trust in her, she's an ally."

They moved further into the area, walking on the path until they reached a large gate outfitted with a retinal scanner. Leona checked her communicator, and groaned when she realized that the new rendezvous point was beyond it.

"Well shit, how're we supposed to get through there?" Ash asked, and Leona shrugged.

"I'm not sure, but I know you can't toss me high enough to climb over. Anyways, there's some sort of lift over there. Let's check it out, and see if there's a way to get past this gate. I mean, we've gotten this far, let's not be defeated by one locked gate."

They walked over to the lift and looked to where the cars were moving from. A deep gorge with a small room and a set of stairs was at the other end of the route. When the next car arrived at the top, Leona and Ash jumped on and got ready for a slow and rickety ride to the bottom. The cars moved slowly, slower than Leona thought possible, giving Leona time to notice that something was wrong.

"Are…they jumping on top?" Leona muttered as she saw several of the Ganados jumping on top of the cars in front of theirs. With a sigh, she unhooked her rife and took aim at the Spaniards. With Ash beside her, quietly cheering with every hit, Leona started shooting people off. It was rather easy, and she almost felt sorry for the ones she toppled, but pushed the thought away after watching three that she hadn't yet killed hacking away at a car, causing it to fall into the gorge.

They reached the bottom and stepped off, and set to exploring.

There wasn't much in the control room, and Leona decided not to touch any of the controls. She didn't want to accidently shut down the lift, in case they needed to go back up. Down the metal stairs, there were two paths, but the one that led to a cave area was obstructed by a cave-in.

"The other way, then." Ash said, and they turned and continued down the stairs.

They reached level ground again, and followed the path around a corner and towards the merchant.

"Ello Stranga. Again." The merchant was fussing around with her things as they approached, before standing and tossing something to Leona.

She reached out and grabbed it, revealing an incendiary grenade. "What's this for?" She asked.

"I found it here while I was settin up, Stranga. And I make a point of not sellin anythin I find, so I'll give it ta you."

"Thanks," Leona said, putting it away. "Do you know anything about that gate up there? We need to go that way, but that lock is pretty fancy. Is there a way to get past it over here?"

The merchant shook her head. "Nope. Sorry Stranga, but the only way to get past there is ta get the Chief's eye. Luckily for ya, she just went that way, and the eye ya need is a fake."

"Okay…" Leona nodded slowly, thinking. "So, what, I just go and ask for it?"

"It's your funeral if ya go about it that way, Stranga. I'd recommend a shotgun to the face instead, but that's just me." The merchant shrugged, and Leona shook her head.

"Right, so that way then?" Leona pointed to an iron gate that was slightly ajar, and the merchant nodded.

Ash pushed the gate open and peered down the path as Leona bartered with the merchant. After her pockets were once again full of outdated Spanish currency, she nodded at Ash and they started down the path.

"So who's this Chief you have to kill?" Ash asked.

"A huge, scary looking woman. I've run into her a few times, and hopefully this will be the last time." They approached the end of the path, and found themselves by an old barn.

Leona quickly checked over her guns, reloading them all and checking them out before telling Ash to hide. It wouldn't do her any good to be fighting the Chief and to have Ash snatched away.

She pulled out her handgun, in case she needed to quick draw on the Chief, and stepped into the barn. It was dark and gloomy and as she stepped inside the door slammed closed with a loud screech. Leona stopped, gun out, before ducking and rolling away as the chief's hand slammed into the ground, breaking the concrete.

The beastly woman looked up again, and Leona had to roll out of the way again, before seeing something unexpected and helpful, a gasoline canister.

"Hasta Luego." She said before firing at the gasoline canister, which knocked the Chief back and set off a series of explosions. Fire rose up around her, and a crackling noise made he look up as she stood.

The Chief wasn't dead, not yet, but she appeared to be turning into a large centipede-like monster. Her clothes were burning away and her skin was taking on a black sheen. Now almost twice as tall, the chief started stumbling towards Leona, who started to shoot at where the bug-like parts connected to the legs, trying to remove her mobility.

It backfired though, as while the chief eventually lost her legs, she also sprouted some kind of bone hooks on her back and started to swing around the fiery area, climbing into the rafters.

"Shit!" Leona muttered as she whipped beads of sweat off her face, trying to see her opponent through the flames and smoke.

It was hard to see much of anything besides smoke and flames, and Leona moved into the center of the room and pulled out her shotgun. She had the feeling that her handgun wasn't going to do much of anything. Leona was standing there, trying to listen for the Chief, when she swung down at her. Leona rolled away and shot at her, hearing a satisfying screech that told her she'd hit.

It soon took the appearance of a game, with the Chief swinging down, trying to swipe at Leona, and Leona trying to hit her with her shotgun. Both of them got lucky hits, with the Chief sending Leona flying and hitting her head on the concrete, and Leona shooting the Chief in the face and causing her to fall to the ground more than once.

With the smoke and heat affecting her, not to mention the blood running down her face and the pain in her head, Leona was having a tough time finding her enemy. Finally, she switched to her rifle and backed up against the hayloft ladder, and searched with her scope. Eventually, Leona was able to spot the Chief hiding up in the rafters near the door.

"Gotcha now…" She muttered, before shooting into the Chief's face.

For a moment, nothing happened, before the screeching mess fell to the floor. The Chief was trying to reach Leona as her body started disintegrating, dragging herself across the floor. She screeched again and Leona shot her with the handgun, before quieting and lying flat on the floor as her fake eye rolled out of her head and towards Leona.

"Serves you right, you bitch…" Leona muttered as she bent and grabbed up eye. It was still slimy, and Leona made a note to not stick her hands anywhere her face as she put it in her pocket. As the fire started to get worse, part of the outside wall crumbled and Leona took it as a sign to jump through to safety.

Back out in the night, she stooped and took big shuddering breaths of clean air. She's rather be cold and wet than cooked and smoked alive.

"Leona! Are you okay? What happened?" Ash rushed over and helped Leona stumble away from the burning building.

"I'm fine, just too much smoke and a little head injury. I have this now though," Leona said with a cough, before pulling out the eye and showing it off.

"Oh ew." Ash made a face, and pulled away as Leona put the eye away and wiped away the blood on her face.

They quickly moved to the lift and hopped on, riding it up to the other side, and Leona held the eye to the reader. With a click, the gate unlocked and a mechanism pulled it open.

With a quick backwards glance, Leona stepped through onto an empty path. The door shut behind them and they started to climb a rather steep path.

"It doesn't look like there's anyone here-"Ash started to say, as a horn sounded.

"Get up against the side!" Leona shouted as she pulled up the TMP and aimed at a truck that was speeding towards them. She started to shoot, hitting the truck in several key places, causing it to crash three feet from her and Ash.

"What the hell was that?" Ash asked, as he pushed away from the side.

"I don't know, but we need to move. Who knows who's going to show up after this truck." They both quickly moved past the suspiciously empty truck and on to a flat pathway. As they started to move down the path, two mobs of Ganados started to appear. Leona grabbed Ash's jacket sleeve and dashed past a deal of them. But more were moving towards the two from both sides, and they found themselves funneled.

"Shit! What now?" Ash asked, and Leona pointed to a drawbridge.

"Over there! We should be able to deal them there!" They ran across the bridge, and Ash pointed out two winches.

He grabbed one, and Leona the other, and they started to wind up the bridge, to the angry cries of their pursuers. Once the bridge was completely closed, they turned to each other and Ash smiled.

"Thank god…I think we're safe now." He said, but Leona wasn't so sure…


	10. Not exactly Hogwarts, huh?

Before Leona did anything else, she quickly pulled out her communicator and messaged Hunnigan.

"We have a problem," she said, and Hunnigan almost looked sick.

"Oh god, what now?" He asked, pressing one hand to his head.

"We can't get to the rendezvous point. They routed us, and we were forced to take shelter in a castle. We should be-" Leona stopped as static danced across the communicator. "Hunnigan?"

"Leona!" Hunnigan was shouting. "You and Ash need to get out of there! That castle belongs to the cult-!" The screen went dead, and no matter what Leona did, she couldn't hail Hunnigan again.

"Shit, this isn't good…" She said, visibly shaking with anger as she shut the communicator, before turning to Ash.

"Are…you okay?" He asked. "We can try to lower the bridge and go back?"

"No, it's too dangerous. Who knows how many of those people are waiting out there. I think our only option it to keep going and try to find another way out." Leona pushed her hair away from her face and sighed. "Let's go in there; I think I can see the merchant's flames. Maybe she can tell us what's going on with this place."

Inside the small hut, Ash skulked in the background as Leona started to pester the merchant.

"Ahh…Stranga, ya shouldn't have come here." The merchant sighed and shook her head, leaning back against the wall.

"Yeah, I know that now. I just didn't think we had much of a choice. What can you tell me about this place?"

"It's a stronghold. The Chief you killed was a grunt compared ta the master of this castle."

"Oh great. What about my communicator. I lost touch with my support. Is it just because of the castle?"

The Merchant shook her head. "No…it is most likely that ta Castellan has something put up ta block your signals."

"Shit…"Leona had been hoping that it was just the storm and the castle, not a jammer. "Thanks."

"Any time, Stranga." The Merchant turned back to whatever she had been doing before, and Leona and Ash started to explore the area outside.

There was only one door, and Leona carefully opened it, and stepped out to check for enemies.

"Well?" Ash hissed from the doorway, and Leona sighed.

"There's too many out here, but we have no choice. Follow me, and stick close….Do you still have that piece of wood with you?" She looked back at Ash, and he shook his head.

"No, I dropped it. Maybe I can find something better inside?"

He crept up close, and Leona pulled out her rifle, aiming at the men in black robes that were pacing the ramparts, some armed with crossbows. After two went down, the others noticed something was wrong and started moving down the steps towards them. Leona pulled out her handgun and started to shoot, aiming for arms and heads, trying to get them to drop their weapons.

After three more had died, Leona and Ash crept forwards, keeping an eye out for anyone headed their way. They'd reached the top of the stairs when the catapults started, three of them sending fiery balls of pitch and rock towards them.

"Shit!" A large hunk had crashed down near them, and Ash had been hit with a piece of burning rock.

"I'm okay!" He said to Leona as he pulled his pant leg away to look at a small burn. "I've had worse."

Leona laughed, and aimed at several gasoline barrels that were positioned near one of the catapults. "The hell you have. When we get somewhere safe, I'll look at it. And who knows what they used to light those things?" She shot, and than there was one less catapult firing on them.

She moved them to a niche where the fireballs couldn't hit them, and started to take down both the men in cloaks and the remaining catapults. With another taken care of, they moved again, dashing up a flight of stairs and ducking around a corner.

Leon peaked over the top and shot another set of gasoline canisters, officially ending the reign of the catapults, before telling Ash to check the giant doors that lead to the interior of the castle.

"I think they're locked," he said, stepping back from them. "Then again, I don't even think we could have opened these ourselves if they were open. These things are huge!"

Leona looked to the other part of the castle walls, and smiled, remembering the cannon she'd seen downstairs. "Ok then, time for plan B. What do you think of cannons?"

"What?" Ash looked confused, but followed after Leona as she jogged towards a handle poking out from some ancient mechanism.

After Ash had caught up, Leona started to struggle with the handle. It obviously hadn't been used in a while, and it took both her and Ash to get it moving. Once it had started though, Leona found it easier than anything to operate. After a few minutes, the cannon was locked into place, and Leona was happy to see that there was ammunition in it already.

"Are you sure this thing is even going to work?" Ash asked, stepping away from it as Leona lined up the shot.

"Oh, it better. Otherwise I have no idea how we're getting in there." She squinted, before firing.

The cannon did its job, destroying the doors, and a good deal of the wall surrounding them.

"Come one, I don't want to attract any unwanted attention, standing out here." Leona said.

"Uh, I think we've already attracted tons of attention. You did just blow up a wall, remember?" Leona and Ash hustled through the hole and ducked through another door, which was, thankfully, unlocked.

It was a small room, and the first thing Leona and Ash saw was a silver coloured sword inside a gold coloured plaque.

"Here, maybe you can use this," Leona said, pulling it out of its setting and passing it to Ash.

He looked it over, before shrugging. "I don't think this is supposed to be a real weapon, but I'll use it for now." He was holding it like a baseball bat, and followed Leona up the steps to the second floor.

There were three enemies, and Leona quickly shot them down, before reloading ad Ash looked around.

"Leona, I think the sword is a key or something, see? There's another one here, and that door is blocked off. Maybe we have to switch them around?" Ash reached out and pulled the other decretive sword out, and switched it so he was holding a gold coloured one, and the silver coloured one was in the slot. Leona could hear gears grinding, but had to put the thoughts on hold as ten or so Ganados entered by the bottom of the stairs.

Leona and Ash were easily spotted, and the Ganados moved towards them, even as Leona started to shoot them down. As one reached the top of the stairs, Leona kicked out, knocking it backwards and sending it down into the others. She still had a grenade that she'd found on a bird, and tossed it down before dragging Ash away.

It exploded, and when Leona peered down the stairs, she could see no evidence that there had been anyone else down there. "Okay, looks like we're safe for now. Let's get that sword in place."

They went down again, and Ash slotted the gold coloured sword in its spot. It clicked in, and a grinding noise started. Leona jogged upstairs in time to see an iron blockade move up into the ceiling.

"We're good!" She called down to Ash, and he came up to stand with Leona, holding a piece of wood that had come off the table after Leona's grenade went off. "Ready?"

"Yep." He said, before wincing. "Ahh…Ok, I miiiiiiight have been lying when I said I'd had worse. Do you think you could take a look?" Ash sat on one of the chairs, and pulled up his pant leg. A small but nasty burn was starting to bubble, and Leona reached for an herb.

"What's that?" Ash asked, wincing a bit as Leona splashed some tepid water on his burn.

"We're not actually sure, to be honest. But these herbs are all over the place, and we've discovered that they act as a mild painkiller when wet. They can also be used to heal small cuts and stop stinging bruises. I'm going to put this on now, okay?"

Ash nodded, and Leona placed the wet plant over his burn. He hissed when it touched initially, and hissed again when Leona wrapped it in thin gauze, but when he stood he seemed to be without pain.

"I didn't think you were supposed to cover burns." The president's son said, and Leona nodded.

"You aren't supposed to, but I need something to hold that herb to your leg. We are not going to sit in the room for three or more hours waiting for your leg to get a bit better. Besides, do you want that burn rubbing up against your pants?"

"…good point" Ash replied, before grabbing his piece of wood again and following after Leona as she edged open the door.

They both stepped through, and Leona dropped her guard, seeing no one in their immediate location. Ash had started to walk ahead, towards another large pair of double doors, when Leona heard footsteps behind her.

"Ash-" She turned, gun up, only to see Louisa.

The Spanish woman looked delighted to see them again. "Leona! Ash! Thank god I found you, listen, I have something for you-" She started to dig in her shirt pockets, before frowning. "What? I swear…"

She looked up, apologetic, before starting to swear. "Fuck! I must have dropped them when I was running away from those fucking bastards!"

"Dropped what?" Ash asked, leaning against the half wall, favouring his leg.

Louisa sighed, aggravated. "Ok, look, you've both been coughing up blood, right?"

Leona was a little taken aback by the question. She'd been trying hard to hide the fact too! She looked over to Ash, who'd flushed, before answering. "Yeah."

At Ash's affirming answer, Louisa sighed again. "Ok, that means the eggs have hatched… You still have time though, they're still small." She looked up at Leona. "Listen, I need to go back. I dropped some pills, they'll help with any…symptoms you start getting because of the parasite. Don't wait up for me, I can find you."

As she turned to go, Ash darted forward. "Wait! Listen, let me go with you! Or better yet, let us both go with you. That way-" Before Ash could finish though, Louisa pushed away.

"No! ...no I think its better that you stay with Leona and you stay on schedule. I wouldn't want to prolong your stay here. Besides, Leona's got a bigger gun, so it's probably best to stick with her." Louisa winked at Ash, before turning and going back through the door they'd come from, but not before tossing something to Leona.

"Here, it's a copy of the gate key. I figured you wouldn't want to try and find the original by digging through bodies. Stay safe."

With that, the other woman was gone, leaving Leona shaking her head.

"Wait…so how did she know that we were coughing up blood?" Ash asked, confused.

"I have no idea. But, she gave us a key, and I'm assuming she thinks we should go in there." Leona nodded to the large doors, before putting the thin key in the lock. It didn't seem like it would actually work, when she heard a small click, and the doors opened with very little effort.

"I'm guessing a lot of people moved through these doors before." She mused out loud, as they walked into the ornate room. She would have continued to talk, idle chatter to make herself, and Ash, feel better, when she head laughter.

She waved Ash closer to her, before walking forwards. As they moved up a set of stairs, someone started to speak. Leona looked up, into the face of a withered looking woman.

She cackled, before starting to speak. "Ahhhh…I was starting to wonder when you were going to notice us." She took a few steps forward, leaning on the balcony railing.

"Yeah? And who are you?" Leona asked, her eyes not on the woman, but rather the two towering bodyguards standing behind her.

The woman smiled wide. "Me llamo Ramona Salazar, the eighth Castellan of this beautiful structure you find yourselves in. I have been blessed by the great Lady Saddler with a most magnificent power, and I have been expecting you, my brethren." She spread her arms wide, her grin turning to a sharks smile.

"Aw, hell no!" Ash said, looking up with disgust. "Lady, there is no way I would ever say we're related. I mean, look at you!"

"Well well, it looks like Mr. Graham is quite the feisty one!" Salazar said, her face twisting. "But never the less, we will break you out of that. Now, please, do just surrender and become our hostages." Salazar paused, before continuing again. "Or, Miss Scott, you can just hand over Mr. Graham, because you aren't worth anything. You can just die."

With that said, the short woman turned and walked off, her bodyguards following right behind her.

"Jesus…There's no way I'm turning into her… or letting her near me." Ash said, shuttering.

"Haha, yeah, you've got that right." Leona said, before scowling as a wall with a mural rose up, blocking their way forward, their way after Salazar.

"Damn!" Leona scowled. Going back over the bridge and fighting through a mob of people was starting to seem more appealing than spending any more time in the castle. With their initial way forward blocked, Leona turned to the side doors. One was locked, and no matter how much Leona shoved, it wouldn't open. The other door swung open as she touched it though, and that made her suspicious.

"Stick close, okay?" She said to Ash, before stepping through. There was a heavy, locked door to the left, and Leona and Ash edged around an oil filled lamp that was barely hanging from the ceiling. They creeped around to the other side, and passed through an archway, only to find their path blocked by fire.

"Oh. Great." Ash said, looking at the fire breathing statues with dismay. "What do we do now?"

"Come on, it looks like there's a cut out in the hall. Maybe there's a door." Much to Leona's disappointment, however, it was not a door, but a large painting with a nail stuck in the middle of it, holding a key.

Leona snatched it up and she and Ash made their way back to where they started. Once they were past the oil lamp suspended from the ceiling, they stopped as Leona tested the key on the heavy door. It fit, making an audible click as Leona turned it, prompting a loud, frustrated groan.

"What was that?" Ash whispered, and Leona turned to face the way they'd come, waiting for an attack.

"I don't know…I think it came from in there." She gestured to the door, before leading the way inside.

As they started down the stairs, she held up her hand. "Wait. It looks like there's someone in here. Ash, stay here, and stay quiet, ok?"

"Gottcha." He nodded, crouching against the wall as he watched Leona make her way down the rest of the stairs.

A large person was strapped to the wall, and Leona could see that his eye had been sewn shut. "Oh buddy…what happened to you?" she muttered, before knocking down the gate separating them. She would have preferred opening it quietly, but she had no choice but to knock it out of the bracing.

She didn't actually think she could help the person, but as the gate clattered to the ground, Leona noticed a lever on the wall. 'That must shut off those fire breathing horses…' she thought to herself as she took a step into the cell. She then quickly backpedaled as Ash hissed, the prisoner breaking free of his bonds, swinging around a pair of retractable claws at her.

She backed herself up so far that she knocked into a large bell that was against one of the walls, and the man growled, before running at her, claws out. Leona quickly rolled out of the way, and the claw man missed, destroying the bell with his claws and getting himself stuck in the wall.

"Leona!" Ash hissed, and Leona quickly moved over to where he was. "I think he's blind, so when you make noise, that's how he finds you. And there's… something on his back too." He pointed, and Leona looked to where the claw man was freeing himself.

"Got it, now shut up." She walked around the pillar, pulled up the TMP, and started to shoot into the man's back. The first few bullets hit, and he started to squirm, before roaring and charging towards her. He instead got himself stuck in the wall again, and Leona repeated to process.

After several go-arounds and a few close calls, the man finally staggered, before collapsing to the ground. Leona fired one more shot, to see if he was really dead, before reloading and walking around the body to the lever. She pulled it down, and she could hear grinding.

"What was that?" Ash asked, standing as Leona jogged back over to the stairs.

"I think it was the mechanism controlling the fire." Leona peered around the door, scowling. "And it appears that it let out some Ganados. Wait here for a second." She stepped out into the hall, aiming up at the oil lamp. As the men started running at her, she fired, dropping the lamp on them, causing a small explosion.

When no one else came around the corner, Leona called Ash to her.

"Are we good?" Ash asked.

Leona nodded. "For now, I think."

They started walking, Leona taking out a few Ganados who attempted to ambush near the horse heads, until they reached another set of doors.

Leona push one door open enough that she could slot her rifle through. Through the scope she could see a line of the Ganados, waiting for them to enter. Instead, she scoffed and started to shoot. It took them a few dead before they realized that they were under attack. As more enemies flowed out of side rooms, Leona switched to her shotgun, pushing the doors all the way open and starting to shoot.

With the way clear, for the time being, they slipped inside. Leona kept watch as Ash moved around the perimeter, helping her search for more ammunition and money, before they started down some stairs, looking for a way to lower the stairs that were above them.

There was a door at the bottom, and Leona kept watch again as Ash moved to large, and evidently heavy, chairs onto a pair of pressure plates. There was another grinding sound, and Leona could hear chanting from the other side of the door.

"Ok, looks like we have company again." Leona said, reloading the shotgun before she opened the door. Several minutes later, they were both back up the stairs, Leona quickly winding a crank, lowering the stairs. She released the crank as Ash dodged an attack from a Ganado wielding a mace, and the stairs thunked down as a few shots took off the Ganado's head.

This one had a different parasite, a thick, chunky parasite that tried to bit off Leona's head. It missed, and Leona quickly took it down, smashing the parasite into the ground, before pushing Ash up the stairs.

"What was that?" Ash asked.

"The parasite. I guess they get more active at night, and that they grow to be really really big." Leona replied, her attention more occupied by a big mote of water, and two more cranks up on a high walkway. "Ash, if I lift you up, could you crank those? I get the feeling we'll need to in order to keep going."

"Yeah, sure, I can do that." He said, and Leona hefted him up on the walkway. He jogged over to the first crank, and started to wind it as several Ganados walked out of side rooms that connected to the walkways.

"Heads up!" Leona called, before starting to shoot. Ash finished with the one crank, before running over to the other, swearing and swinging the table leg at the enemies in his way.

"What the hell is wrong with this place? Why are there so many stupid puzzles?!" He yelled as he shoved a Ganado off the walkway, before cranking the next crank.

"Trust me, this is nothing." Leona shouted back, as she clocked one of her attackers in the head. "I'm starting to think that everywhere I go is going to have these stupid ass puzzles."

Ash snorted, before leaping back from the crank and a Ganado. "Ok, I got them!"

Two platforms had popped up behind Leona, and she cleared the way for Ash as he jogged over to her. She let him go ahead of her, jumping over the water onto the platforms, before she followed. As a small wave ran towards them, Leona slammed open the door, ushered herself and Ash through it, before slamming it shut and throwing the lock.

"Are we good, Ash?" She asked, wincing as the door rattled.

"Uh, yeah I think so, yeah. That Merchant is here, but I think that's it." Ash said, wincing.

"Okay, good." Leona backed away from the door. "I have no idea if this door is going to hold, so I guess we should get moving right away." She turned to Ash, who had suddenly doubled over, clutching his side and coughing. "Ash? Are you alright?"

Leona rushed over to Ash, grabbing his arm, but he suddenly straightened up, pushing her away.

"No! I'm…I'm fine, okay?" He yelled, and Leona could see that his leg was starting to bother him again. He limped his way into a corridor, and before Leona could reach for him, a row of spikes erupted from the floor. Ash stumbled back, wavering, before turning and running as four more rows sprang up.

"Shit! Ash, what the hell is going on? Are you okay?" Leona yelled, shaking the spikes. Ash didn't bother replying, instead slumping against the wall.

"Shit…I have no fucking clue." He said finally, with a weak laugh, before several metal bands slid out of the wall, restraining Ash. "Oh fuck, now what?"

Before Leona could say anything, the wall started to rotate, taking Ash and leaving Leona looking at an empty piece of stone.

"Fuck!" Leona ran over to the wall as soon as the spike retracted, feeling for a break in the stone, looking for a flaw of some sort. "Oh god damn it. Ok, Ash, don't worry, I'll get you out of there. You'll just have to wait for a bit…" She muttered, mostly to herself, to make herself feel better about having lost her target.

Having given up looking for a way to Ash at the moment, Leona quietly walked over to where the Merchant was, to ask her some questions, when her communicator beeped.

"Hunnigan, is that you?" She asked, watching as the static started to clear up. But instead of Hunnigan, it was Salazar, the woman's face an unwelcome sight. "Salazar….So you're the one who blocked Hunnigan."

The woman chuckled. "Well, we don't want you telling anyone any…unnecessary information."

Leona scowled. "Where's Ash."

Salazar looks surprised, then pleased, and Leona regretted asking. "Oh? So Mr. Graham fell into one of my marvellous traps, hm? Well, no worries, I'm sure my men will find and safely retrieve him. Oh! And just to let you know, I let my….miserable insects out for some exercise in our sewers."

Leona rolled her eyes as the diminutive Spaniard giggled. "Oh. Thanks. Well, you know, boredom just kills me."

"Hmph. Well, Miss Scott, I look forwards to meeting you again…In another life." The Spaniard smirked, before cutting the connection, leaving a steaming Leona standing in the hall, the Merchant shooting worried looks in her direction.

"My name. Is Kennedy. You fucking midget." She muttered, slamming her communicator back into its case. She then turned to the Merchant, snapping out two questions.

"Where did he go and how do I get him back?"


	11. Invisabugs (and romance?)

There must have been something in Leona's voice, because the Merchant took a step back before answering. "I…Stranga, you need to go up there." She pointed up to the stairs, but stopped Leona before she could storm her way over there. "Stranga! Wait, the way is blocked. You'd have to get there from the top, but the ladder…" Leona turned, looking to the next place the Merchant was pointing.

"Great. Then where do I go?" Leona huffed, aggravated.

"Through there. It's an entrance to the dungeons. There's a path that leads to the door up there. Then you could jump across." The Merchant said, hesitant. "It won't got ya to him right away though. Tis a big castle."

Leona gritted her teeth. "I figured it'd be something like that. Ok, now, before I go, Salazar said something about bugs. What did she mean?"

"She let out the Novistadors goes here? Stranga, you have ta be careful…They have a…camouflage, and spit acid." The Merchant sounded quite worried, but Leona paid her no mind. She had a bigger issue.

"Great. And I guess I'm going right through a bunch of them, huh?" Leona shook her head, annoyed, before pulling the door to the dungeons open. "Thanks."

If the Merchant said anything else, she didn't hear it, instead slipping into a small room with a trap door. She was pissed that she let something happen to Ash, not to mention he also had most of the ammunition.

"Fucking stupid…I should have kept a better eye on him, after what Louisa said…" She grumbled to herself as she jumped down into the damp tunnels, skipping the ladder, and pulling out her shotgun. If the bugs were invisible, then something with a wide range would be invaluable.

As she walked down the corridor, gun up and eyes searching, a loud splash and the sound of someone, or something, running made her jump. Tensing up, she couldn't see anything, couldn't hear anything, so she took a few more steps forward, before spinning around a corner.

She couldn't see anything, but she knew that wasn't going to be an accurate way to stay on the lookout. As she continued her cautious walk, she noticed something against the far wall that seemed…off. She paused, and narrowed her eyes. Something, probably one of the bugs, was crouched there, a wavy obstruction that refracted the light in a way that she could tell it was there.

She resumed her walk, wanting to get as close to the bug before shooting. She stopped again once she could hear chittering, before shooting into the odd patch of wall. The bug screeched and flickered, becoming visible for a split second before Leona shot it again, sending it to the ground.

Once it had died, she quickly moved around the corner, looking for anything out of the ordinary. There was a shallow pool in-between her and the next door, and she could see ripples in the water, the bugs shifting, watching her.

Leona patted herself down, worried that Ash also had all and any of her grenades. She found two on her belt, and tossed one into the water. The bugs jumped when the grenade splashing in, but the explosion took them down.

Leona quickly made her way through the next area, not lingering as more and more of the bugs started to show up. She drained the water obstructing her way as quickly as possible and rushed out into a hall of blades.

"…" she stared at the pendulums, swinging across the walkway, steeled herself, and made her move. The first two blades were easy enough, but the last two, Leona could have sworn she felt the blades skim her back as she crossed.

She quickly made her way to a ladder, then through a door to find herself on the balcony above where Ash had been taken. There were several cultists down below, and Leona quickly threw her last grenade down at them before kicking down a ladder. It wouldn't do to jump down and not have a way back up.

Several of the cultist died when the grenade went off, and Leona carefully picked through their remains, finding the small gems and one large pendant, before looking for the Merchant. The cult members that weren't killed by the grenade had run down where the dungeon was, and the wall has sealed itself, so there was no way she was going back in there.

Not that she wanted to.

She eventually found the merchant up on some stairs, behind a metal grate.

"How'd you get there?" Leona asked, looking or a way to open the gate. The door was behind it too.

"…They chased me up here, Stranga." Was all the Merchant would say on that matter, before nodding across the way. "There's levers over there, Stranga. I think that's how they closed this area in."

"Right…Okay give me a second." All the bugs Leona had killed had placated some of her anger, and she tried to not snap at the Merchant. It wouldn't be good if the Merchant decided not to help her again because of her poor attitude.

She quickly made her way back up the ladder and jumped across on a crumbling chandelier, and pulled a lever. All it did was open a different gate, one that led to a second lever. Leona rolled her eyes, before swinging on another chandelier to get across to that lever, before pulling it and opening the main gate.

She quickly jumped down, and jogged up the stairs. Before going through the doors though, she paused at the Merchant.

"Why didn't you fight them when those ganados came through here? You're armed and I'm sure you know how to use those weapons." She asked, curious.

The Merchant shook her head. "No, not afta last time…I can't chance em comin afta me, Stranga."

"Last time?" Leona asked, but the Merchant refused to elaborate, instead shaking her head and gesturing to the doorway.

With a wave, Leona pushed open the door, stepping out into a very nondescript hallway. The nondescript hallway lead to two nondescript rooms, but as she moved to leave, she could hear mumbling and chanting on the other side.

She readied her gun, took a deep breath, and stepped out. As she looked for the source of the chanting, two crossbow bolts slammed into the wall next to her head.

"Shit!" Leona dropped to a crouch, hiding behind a partition while she waited for the shooters to step out into sight. She didn't have to wait long, and she was able to get a few good shots as the ganados wandered out into the open. With them disposed of, Leona took a quick look around the room.

There were three doors, the one she'd entered through, one up on the second floor, and one down where she was, behind a fake window. There was also a few shattered pieces of pottery, and Leona shook her head as she walked past. She wasn't sure what they had looked like before, she hadn't been paying attention, but she was sure they had been old, and probably expensive.

'But…this is no time to be mourning vases. I have no idea where Ash is, and I need to find him before Salazar and her cronies do!' she thought to herself as she opened the door, and made her way up the stairs to a third floor. From where she was standing, Leona could see down onto the area with the third door.

It looked empty, so Leona made her way over to the second floor, and slid down from the walkway. However, the minute her feet touched the ground, she heard a click and the sound of someone running.

"Shit!" she hissed, grabbing for her rifle as a cultist dressed in red, ran up on the walkway. She fired off two quick shots, but only managed to clip him once. He spun slightly, before running into the room Leona had come through.

After waiting for some time, and not seeing him exit the bottom door, Leona lowered the gun, before turning and testing the door knob.

'Locked. Of fucking course…And I bet that one has the key. I guess I have to go find and kill him…' she sighed, before turning to the stairs. Before she went up them, though, she took the time to grab a handful of coins that were sitting on a bookshelf.

'They won't mind me taking these…' she though as she made her way back to where she'd come. As she reached the door, she could hear someone breathing behind it. Had he really run only behind the door, she wondered, before putting away the rifle and unhooking her shotgun. She didn't want him bolting again.

With a loud bang, she kicked the door open, and lined up the shot. It was only her and the man in a deer skull mask, and she shot, twice, at his head. He flew backwards, and Leona shot forwards. She didn't know if she had killed him, or if he had somehow managed to survive, so she kicked at the body, waiting for a twitch. The skull mask had broken, and Leona bent down. This cultist was not getting up again.

With a grimace, she shoved her hands around, trying to find the key, before pulling it out.

"Right, let's get out of here then…" she muttered, whipping her hands on her pants and walking back to the door.

It opened to reveal a gallery, a series of 4 gruesome paintings hanging on the wall. And no door.

"Right…right…okay this is probably a puzzle then, right?" Leona said out loud, walking up to a podium that was in the middle of the room. " 'The sacrifice of six lives shall make way the true path'. So, I have to use this to change the paintings then?"

Leona started pressing the buttons on the podium, until she had the pictures aligned correctly and the wall slid back, revealing another doorway. This one, she soon found, opened to an ambush.

"Ah…Miss Scott, what a surprise!" Leona looked up at Salazar, hand at her hip. Just what she needed.

"But, I'm afraid it's Mr. Graham that we need, not you."

Leona snickered. "What, so you haven't found him yet? And here I was thinking that you knew where everyone in this castle is, you old hag." It was a relief to hear that Salazar also didn't know where Ash was.

Salazar gasped. "Old? Oh, it must be a surprise to hear, Miss Scott, but I am only twenty years of age!" Leona snorted as the woman pressed a hand to her chest, shaking her head.

"So you're just another puppet of those damned parasites…"

This seemed to insult Salazar, who snarled at her. "Enough! We've wasted enough time here already, kill the American."

With a wave of her hand, Salazar disappeared behind a wave of ganados, all making their way towards Leona.

"Aw…shit." Leona took a quick look to either side of herself, dodged a scythe thrown at her by one of the cultists, and dove to the right, at a door. She would have attempted to exit the way she'd come, but bars had slammed down the minute Salazar had left.

The door lead to a stairway, and she rushed up the stairs, stopping only to grab an herb that was potted in a corner. 'If it's the same as the ones at home, it'll be handy. I'll take a look at it later…when I'm not being hounded.'

Exiting the door at the top, Leona could see that most of the ganados had crowded down at the bottom, at the door she'd gone through. With them occupied, she made her way around the upper floor, until she reached a barred door with a clearly active security alert situated on the wall. The shut off switch was also there, and Leona slammed her hand onto it.

With a rumble, the center of the floor below rose up, a blue and gold chest sitting on a podium in the middle. There was no walkway out to the chest, but it wasn't that far out.

"I can probably jump to that…" Leona said, before pulling up her shotgun. She could hear the enemies she'd avoided heading her way. As she cleared her way through the crowd, she eventually made a running jump, grabbing the edge of the platform and pulling herself up on it.

After checking to be sure that there were no ganados with crossbows or ranged weapons in sight, she popped open the lid, and reached inside. A small silver goat head was inside, and when Leona lifted it out, something clicked and the bars over the doors lifted.

"…" After putting the goat head away in her pockets, she looked down at the assortment of ganados surrounding her. Jumping across wouldn't work, because they could grab her legs, and being pulled down to the floor by them wasn't high on Leona's wish list.

Steeling herself, Leona ran and jumped, landing hard near the stairs, before scrambling to her feet and running for the door. She re-activated the security system before she spun through the door, and she slammed it closed.

After a quick look around, she dragged a heavy chest to the door, shoving it up against the door. No one was getting through it now.

With a deep breath, Leona turned to look to the hallway she'd entered. There was no one around, but she was still cautious. 'This would be the perfect time for something to jump out at me…' she thought to herself, idly reloading her weapons. She was running low again, and Leona regretted letting Ash carry most of the ammunition with him.

Luckily for here, nothing jumped out at her, and the next hallway was empty but for a locked door, some broken windows, and a pair of crows that brushed past her face when she approached.

Exiting the hallway back to the outdoors, Leona took a deep breath. The air in the castle was dusty, and the fresh, post-rain air was refreshing. She smiled a little as she walked, her mood improving.

'Now, once I find Ash, my mood should be back to normal.' She though as she approached a door. The door was locked, but there was a high window, and a barred window. Through the barred window, Leona could see several chests, and she frowned.

"I'll have to come back this way with Ash, if I can…" she muttered, before continuing on to a small garden maze. She could see two fountains, as well as a dog kennel. Filled with barking, snarling, and enraged infected dogs.

"Great…" keeping her eyes on the kennel, she continued walking, only for her communicator to beep. There was a smidgen of hope that it would be Hunnigan, but Leona was sorely disappointed.

"You again?" she asked, staring at the tiny, distorted mug of Salazar.

"My my Miss Scott, you are exceptionally hard to kill! But, I do think this will be our last conversation tonight," the other woman smiled, teeth pointy and gleaming. "My dogs would love to get out to play, and, as sagacious as I am, even I get lost in my maze sometimes. Now, if you'll excuse me, I am rather busy…chasing down a couple of rats."

As the connection was severed, Leona raised an eyebrow. "…You've really gotten lost in this dinky little excuse for a maze?" she belatedly asked, before shaking her head. 'Who are those other rats? I'm one, Louisa is another…but is there someone else here? The person who shot the village chief maybe?' she thought, coming to a stop by a door.

It didn't push open, and Leona could see a place for a crest to be inserted. 'So…they're probably down there with those dog wolf things.' She sighed, before heading down the stairs. She wanted to get this puzzle hunting bullshit out of the way as fast as possible.

After what felt like hours, Leona found herself sitting by the one fountain, legs dangling over the edge. She had both pieces of the crest she needed to go through the door. As she'd expected, the maze had been tedious to work through, and the dog…wolf things hadn't been pleasant to deal with. But, she had the pieces she needed now to get into the room, so that was good, at least.

Still, Leona found herself not wanting to get up and leave quiet yet. Even with the monsters that had, moments before, been chasing her through the hedges, the maze was beautiful. The air smelt nice, and the splashing of the fountain behind her was relaxing. Hell, if she hadn't been dealing with the cult, she would have loved to come to a place like this for vacation.

'Maybe Ash will decide to go on a vacation after all this is done and I can tag along. Sleep for days, food, no one trying to kill me…' she thought as she finally slid down off of the raised area with the fountain. She leisurely walked to the door, and inserted the crest, before pushing the doors open. Drawing her gun, she stepped inside.

The room seemed to taunt her, a large 4 poster bed at one side, but before she could explore any, someone stepped up behind her and pressed a gun into the small of her back.

"I'd put your hands up where I can see the, if I was you," a soft voice said, and she tensed.

"Sorry, but I'd rather lead this dance." She replied, waiting to see what the person, the very familiar sounding person, would do next. She felt the man pull his gun back from her back a little, before pressing it in again, a little higher this time.

"Please, put them up." He said. "Now." He shifted a little, and Leona took that as her chance. She reached around, grabbing the man's arm, her eyes widening a little.

'It can't be! Then that report…'

She reached for the gun, and the man twisted and flipped, wrenching the gun from both their hands, sending it flying into the air. As the weapon spun, Leona took a hopping step forwards as she unsheathed her knife. As the man finished his flip, grabbing the gun out of the air and bringing it around to face her, Leona was already there, her knife up against his neck.

"You know, you should try a knife next time. Works better for close encounters." She ejected the clip onto the floor, before tossing the empty gun to the other side of the room. She couldn't believe it. Aden Wong, standing there when she'd mourned his death all those years ago, after Raccoon City.

"Hello, Leona. Long time, no see. How have you been?" she smiled at her as he removed his sunglasses, and Leona fumed. Oh, she had some choice words that she wanted to scream at him, but, instead, she tried to calm herself a little.

"Aden. So, it's true then?" It was the safest question to ask, one that wouldn't betray how she was feeling.

"I don't know. What do you think is true?" he asked, and she almost snarled as he tilted his head to the side, still smiling at her.

"About you, working with Wesker." She took a step forwards, perhaps to try and grab at him. After a report detailing an eccentric spy, working with a former member of S.T.A.R.S, had come across Leona's desk, she'd initially dismissed it. Aden had died in Raccoon City, plain and simple.

But, obviously that was not the case.

Aden only shifted a little. "Oh, so I see you've been looking into me. When did you figure out I wasn't really dead?"

"Why, Aden? Why Wesker?" Oh, if there was one thing she didn't want to talk to him about, it was his live state. She got the feeling that it would get awkward, really fast.

'Not to mention you have a mission. And besides, why do you even care? He's pretended to be dead for how long; never got in contact with you once?'

"What's it to you?" Aden replied with a question of his own, and this time Leona did snarl.

"Why are you here? Why'd you just…show up like this? How long have you been-" She was interrupted as Aden started to chuckle, but before she could curse at him for that, she noticed the glasses on the floor and that Aden was moving away from them.

They quickly exploded, and Leona ducked down, weaving as the flash brought spots up in front of her eyes. Once the smoke cleared, Aden once again had his gun, and was halfway out the window.

"I'll see you around, Stranger." He shot a bright smile at her, before jumping out into the maze.

"Aden!" Leona yelled, quickly moving towards the window, but not seeing a trace of the spy. For a moment, she contemplated going back out there, finding him and making him explain himself, but…

"But Ash takes priority, Leona. Simple as that. Worry about that ass later." She said to herself, frowning. The frown then turned bright red when she entered a side room to the Merchant obviously smiling at her.

"…You heard that?" she asked, a little embarrassed.

"Yeah, Stranga. Heard the entire exchange. So ya know the other Stranga, eh?" the girl asked, before chuckling.

"…Shut up."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Self edited late at night, so if I missed anything, please! Let me know : )
> 
> You'll have noticed that I skimped out on 2 areas. Namely the dungeon with the invisabugs and the maze. That's because A.) I didn't want this chapter getting any longer than it already is, and B.) Because I don't like those areas.
> 
> (The maze is okay, but FUCK THE BUGS jfc. I dither and refuse to go in there for a while once I get to that part. Even if it's my billionth play through :I )


	12. Chapter 12

Aden had followed behind Leona and Ash, waiting by the gate that led to the castle while Leona battled the Chief, and crept behind them after they went through. He let the two of them handle the onslaught of enemies along the castle path, and grappled into the castle grounds. Stopping in a garden maze for a rest, he could hear the havoc that Leona was wreaking in the castle and it's inhabitants.

He was still there when he saw Leona enter the maze, and he knew he needed to reveal himself. While Leona was combing the maze for the door crests, Aden jimmied open one of the windows and slid inside.

It didn't take Leona long to open the door, and she swept in, gun out and checking the room. Aden pulled out a pair of sunglasses and slipped them on before sliding forwards and pressing his gun to her lower back.

"I'd put your hand up where I can see them if I was you." He said softly, and he could feel Leona tense under his gun.

"Sorry, but I'd rather lead this dance." Was her reply, and Aden grinned, before moving his gun up higher.

"Please, put them up. Now." Aden shifted, and Leona took that chance to attack. She grabbed his arm and twisted it around. Aden grunted in pain, and as the agent went to take his gun, he flipped, kicking it from her grasp.

He could see the gun falling, and reached for it as he finished his flip. He grabbed it, and quickly spun, aiming for Leona, but he was too slow. She'd pulled out her knife, and now she had him trapped. With her knife uncomfortably close to his neck, she grabbed his gun away from him.

"You know, you should try a knife next time. Works better for close encounters." She ejected the clip onto the floor, before tossing the empty gun to the other side of the room.

Aden smiled as she created some distance, and crossed his arms. She turned to face him, a stormy look on her face, and he made the first move.

"Hello, Leona. Long time, no see. How have you been?" He carefully pulled the shades off, and smiled at her. Her face relaxed a bit as she thought about her reply.

"Aden. So, it's true then?" She still was guarded, but Aden didn't think Leona was going to do much.

"I don't know. What do you think is true?" He tilted his head to the side, wondering in the back of his mind what she was talking about. It obviously wasn't about his miraculous survival after Raccoon's fall.

"About you, working with Wesker." Leona scowled and took a step forwards.

Aden blinked, before smiling and dropping his sunglasses. Hopefully they'd go off right on time. "Oh, so I see you've been looking into me. When did you figure out I wasn't really dead?"

Leona ignored the question. "Why, Aden? Why Wesker?"

"What's it to you?" He replied, the sunglasses now starting to beep.

"Why are you here? Why'd you just, show up like this? How long have you been-" Aden chuckled slightly, before taking a step away from the glasses. Leona stopped speaking to look down at them, as the wires inside connected and they exploded.

Leona ducked, shielding her face, and Aden quickly grabbed his gun and stopped at the window, pushing it open. Leona looked up at him, and he smiled at her again.

"I'll see you around, Stranger." He said before jumping back out to the maze. He heard Leona say his name, but ignored it. He knew she had bigger things to worry about than her. He didn't see Ash, so something must have happened to him, and he knew Leona would be more worried about that.

He jumped over to where he had been standing before, and found the Merchant standing there, testing a bowgun.

"Oh, well I didn't expect to see you here." He said, sitting on the edge of a fountain.

"Well, who else is going to be here, sellin ya stuff, Stranga?" She then hummed to herself, and pulled out a kit, obviously trying to fix something and ended the conversation.

"Hmmm…" Aden was about to leave when his PDA beeped at him. He pulled it out to Wesker's blank face.

"Sera has the sample. Get into the castle and retrieve it, ASAP."

"Understood." Aden replied, as a map of the castle appeared, Louisa's location marked on his map.

He expected that to be all, but Wesker continued to talk. "And that government agent, Leona... If you run into her, put her out of commission. We can't have her interfering with my plans."

Aden's heart lept into his throat. "She has no idea what's happening. There's nothing to worry about, so I shouldn't need to remove her."

Wesker snorted. "You've forgotten. She's a survivor of Raccoon City. We don't need any extra interference. Take her out. And if you can, grab Graham. It would be interesting to see how the plaga behaves in a fresh host." Wesker cut the connection before Aden could protest again, and he slowly lowered the PDA.

"Leona…" he said, looking back over to the room. Oh how he'd hoped he wouldn't get those orders…

"Ah, I get it now, Stranga'." Aden jumped and turned, the Merchant standing behind him, an oily cloth in her hand and a huge grin on her face.

"I don't know what you mean." He said, while mentally chiding himself. He needed to stop having conversations with Wesker when this girl was around.

"Ya like the other Stranga', don't cha. That's why ya asked me to hide that key."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." He replied, knowing full well that the Merchant knew he was lying.

She laughed. "Sure, Stranga. An ya blush like that for just about anyone, right?" she turned back to her work, humming again, and Aden quickly left.

He knew he couldn't go back to that room yet, knowing that Leona was most likely still hanging around in that wing, so he went back the way he'd come. He had seen something in one of the rooms, but he hadn't stopped, knowing that Leona was most likely going to follow the same route as him.

As Aden turned around a hedge, a trio of ganados stormed their way towards him, wielding scythes. With a sigh, Aden dodged the thrown weapons, before taking aim and tripping the lead but shooting at his feet. This caused the rest of them to topple to the ground and Aden jumped over them, and jumped off the small bridge.

He had more important things to deal with than some small potatoes, and really, he was going to need all the ammunition he could scrounge. There was another cultist standing at the top of the stairway out of the maze, and after barely dodging the arrow, Aden ran up and kicked the man in the face.

He fell, and Aden quickly and viciously stomped down on his head, which split like a melon. He could see the tripped ganados motioning towards him, and Aden took one look back into where Leona had gone, before going back the way he's entered. He'd seen a room that he wanted to look inside, and it was too dangerous to be near her now…

"Right, Aden. This is what you're going to do. You avoid Leona like she's got some kind of disease or bad breath, you find Sera and get her and the sample out of there, and then you book it out of this shitty little area." Aden grumbled as he made his way from the garden and through a door.

His good mood from seeing, from talking to, Leona gone, he only rolled his eyes as another cultist approached. Rather than attack, Aden dodged past the infected person, ran behind a fountain, and stopped in front of a door.

He gave the knob a yank, then pushed the metal door, but there was no movement at all. Well, from the door at least. The initial cultist had been joined with several others, and it was only with a quick eye that Aden noticed the open 'window' that led into the locked room.

As the ganados started getting closer and closer, Aden quickly rappelled up and over the ledge into the room and to safety.

Or, well, not exactly.

As soon as he passed the lip of the sill, Aden could see the masked Ganado that was under him. As he came into land, he decided to follow a bit of Leona's advice.

As he touched down, he spun and jammed his knife deep into the infected man's chest, wrenching it up and out before kicking the man back into the wall.

"Well, looks like Leona was right. Knives do really work better." He commented, before checking the door. It almost look like someone had welded it shut from the inside, but as he looked around the small space, Aden couldn't see any welding equipment.

Ignoring the 4 or 5 cultists who were now at the door, Aden poked around in the 4 chests in the room, prying each open.

In one, there was a grenade which he gladly clipped to his belt. Another had one of those strange green herbs. The third one had a small brink of what looked like gold, but Aden wasn't sure.

"I'll have to have that Merchant girl check you out for me, hm?" He said, stashing it away before opening the 4th chest. This one was much larger, and, if pressed, Aden would admit that his eyes widened a bit at the prize inside.

"Now this is nice…Wonder how much I can get for this?" He asked himself, before clipping it to his belt and turning to the barred window. The ganados had grouped outside, trying, and failing, to poke at Aden with their weapons from outside the room.

With a chuckle, he pulled out his hand gun and took careful aim. After several minutes, his way was clear and he rappelled back over to the other side.

After a quick check to see that the hourglass was still on his belt, he turned back towards the garden. If Leona wasn't out of that area already then…

"Well then there'll be an issue hm?" he muttered, entering the room that he left her in. There was no one there, however, but the Merchant.

She barely looked up as he entered. "Don't worry. The other Stranga' is already gone. Ya got something for me, Stranga'?"

Aden shook his head. "And why do you think I care if she's left or not?" he asked before placing his items out on the table in front of her.

"Becase, Stranga'," she said while picking at his items, "I was there when you were talkin ta that other Stranga'. And you had me hide a key for her, 'member?" She raised an eyebrow, before passing over the bowgun, the hourglass, and a good deal of money.

"Well my missions changed, obviously. I can't go around helping her anymore." He replied, picking up the bowgun and looking through the sight.

The Merchant just stared. "So…are ya goin' ta kill the other Stranga' then?" she asked, quietly, and it struck Aden for a minute that she was rather young. Sounded like she was still in her teen years, and he wondered briefly when she started dealing in weapons…Briefly wondered where her parents were.

"I-" he started, not sure what to say to the question, not sure if he should lie or tell the truth, when the Merchant pulled out a large hunting knife, and embedded it into the table.

"You'll have no more help from me then, sir." She said, her eyes boring into his, completely serious. "And if you take a shot at her, I will take a shot at you. And I do not miss."

Aden swallowed thickly, before shaking his head. "I couldn't. She's…" He sighed, and put the bow gun on the table, before leaning on it and putting his face in his hands.

"She's too important, so I'll stay out of sight. I promise" He watched between his fingers as the Merchant visibly relaxed, her shoulders slumping as she let go of the knife handle.

"…Good." She said, staring down at the table as Aden straightened, grabbing his things. The quiver for the bowgun fit perfectly in one utility slot on his belt, and as he was getting ready to leave, she spoke up again.

"You'll need the hourglass, sir. It's a key for a…trap. A cage trap. You can't give it to me." The Merchant pushed the timepiece towards him, and Aden picked it up with a nod before leaving.

"…well that was tense," He muttered to himself as he walked into the next room, a large dining room. She had made him think, briefly for a moment, what he would do if he ran into Leona again…but that was a what-if scenario. He shook his head, and looked around. There were several plaques on the walls, and as he read them, he became acutely aware of how little he'd had to eat in the last two days.

"Maybe I can see if that girl has any food…" he wondered out loud as he walked through an open door and right into the aforementioned cage trap. As the cage slammed down around him, conveniently outfitted with two doors….which were inconveniently locked, he could hear the sound of a lock clicking.

As the ganados started to drop down around him, he drew his attention to the red chest sitting on a pedestal in the middle of the room, and opened it. There was an indent at the bottom, and right as he placed the hourglass inside, the…man jumped down as well.

Surrounded by jeering cultists, he found himself face to face with a horribly deformed man, his face stitched up, his eyes gone. As Aden stared in horror, one of the ganados inside the cage bumped into the mutilated man, who roared and quickly impaled the ganado. As he started to flail about aimlessly, Aden quickly realized that he reacted strongly to sound, and was glad that his shoes were amongst the softest, most quiet pair he owned.

The large ganado's claws caught on one of the doors, and with an outraged scream it wrenched it off, before stumbling out into the dining area, leaving Aden alone with all of the smaller, peskier enemies.

"…" He didn't want to make too much noise, knowing that just because the monster was in another room didn't mean it couldn't hear him, so he decided to test the bowgun. He knew from prior experience how to handle it, and oh how quiet it was, and he started to shoot, using the small number of arrows that the Merchant had given him.

As Aden quietly cleaned the bodies, retrieving his arrows, he realized how…quiet it was, and for a moment panicked. After all, the Merchant girl was just in the other room…what if that thing had gone through another door, after her?

Almost unsure if he wanted to look or not, he peered back into the dining room, and sighed with some relief when he saw the large ganado standing, back towards him, looking at nothing.

"You're a little too dangerous to be left wandering by yourself there, amigo. Not to mention you're in horrible condition." Aden whispered, before carefully and quietly unlatching the rifle. He took careful aim, a deep breath…then fired three times into the monster's exposed parasite.

It roared, confused and obviously in pain, the large claws embedded in it's hands slicing and gouging the chairs and tables around it as it fell. Walking up to it, Aden could see that despite being on the ground and incapacitated, it wasn't dead yet.

"Apologies," Aden said, before pulling out his hand gun and shooting twice into it's head, until it stopped squirming. "But it's better for you like this."

With a sigh, he turned away from the corpse and headed back to the previously locked door. "This mission is just playing havoc with my emotions. I think I'm going to have to take a bit of a break before I do another one…"

And while he hated the idea of having to sit still for a month, to get his bearings straight, it was just like Raccoon again. Weird puzzles, Leona, emotionally charged decisions…He was going to need a respite.

Pushing open the next door, he was greeted to the sounds of gunfire.

"Shit!" he hissed, walking out onto the walkway in the middle. Across the room, in another section, was Leona. And if she turned around at all…

"I'm sorry, Leona, but I can't been seen with you right now. It's too dangerous for everyone if we're involved, at this stage at least…" he said as he quickly darted across the walkway and through the door. It lead to a hallway with a short staircase, and as he reached the end, he saw the Merchant again.

"She's going to be coming this way, isn't she?" he asked, and the Merchant nodded.

"I won't be able to stop her, sir. That boy she's protecting in through those doors, and she won't be happy if I tell her not to go through." The Merchant replied, before turning her head. "She's coming, get into the next room."

As Aden opened the door and slipped through, he could hear the other door opening, and the Merchant dropping something and swearing exaggeratedly.

Carefully to keep out of Ash's line of sight, Aden moved behind a column, sure he wouldn't been seen, and waited.

After several moments, the door opened again, and Leona rushed in.

"Ash! Are you okay?" he heard her ask, just as the door opened again. "Louisa?"

"Leona! Crap, I'm glad I found you. Here, this is-" The usually cheery sounding Spanish woman was cut off suddenly, and Aden carefully peered around the corner, before sinking back and closing his eyes.

Saddler.

"Ah. Thank you, Miss Kennedy, for finding our little spy. It's a pity you couldn't flush the other one out for me, but…In due time." The woman chuckled as there was the sound of something wet, a tentacle, retracting, before the cult leader calmly and quietly walked away through the door they had all entered.

Aden didn't dare to look as Leona yelled, or as Louisa croaked out her last words.

The mission was already hard enough.

As Leona fell silent, but for small sobs, Aden pulled out his PDA and contacted Wesker.

"Louisa is dead."

Aden took care to speak quietly, but also not to allow too much emotion into his voice. He had liked the woman, and the loss to the scientific community…Well, it was major blow.

But Wesker didn't seem to care.

"The sample?" she snapped, and Aden could hear her scrolling through something.

"Saddler took it. It was too chancy to confront her right away too." He replied, trying to ignore the sounds that Louisa was making.

"Kennedy?" was her next concern, and Aden knew that she would not be happy with her answer.

"No. I didn't get a chance-" he didn't even get time to explain when Wesker hung up on him, and he sighed, bowing his head. Wesker wasn't very happy with him, but what could she do from her cozy little hidey hold?

Hearing Leona move from the body to looking down at Ash, Aden took the time to quickly exit through one of the many doors. He didn't think Wesker was going to contact him for a while, so he may as while lurk, and keep an eye on Leona…  
\- - -

He stayed one step behind her this time, watching everything she did, until Ash was grabbed again. He knew now that he couldn't follow behind, after hearing where they were planning on taking him, and instead made a plan.

He knew that there was a dock, just a small one, at this part of the castle, and, well, Wesker was already annoyed with him. What little harm could there be, giving Leona a lift to the island?

Reaching the boat sometime before her, he puttered around trying to ignore the sudden and angry sensation of hunger that was growing in his stomach.

"Let's see…I can take here to here, then rappel away before Wesker can get any satellite footage…then I just have to-" He was muttering to himself as he checked the fuel level on the boat, when someone coughed behind him.

Spinning, he brought up the bowgun and pointed it at-

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't point what was once mine at me, sir. Saddler…she killed that other woman, didn't she?" the Merchant asked, tugging at her face scarf.

"You should know. Didn't she go past you on her way in and out?" he said, lowering the bowgun.

The Merchant shook her head. "I don't let her see me, so I hid after Miss went past. All I know is that there was a noise, and when I saw Miss again, she told me Louisa was dead. Why didn't you help?"

Aden was silent for a moment, not willing to answer, when his PDA chimed.

"Aden here, how can I help you, Wesker?" he asked, his voice gaining a much cheerier tone.

"You need to get to the island and rendezvous with Krauser. Saddler's headed there, so you should be able to get the sample, I trust." Wesker said, before pausing. "Where are you, exactly?"

"At a boat launch," Aden replied, seeing the Merchant slip away as he walked around and seated himself fin the boat. "I heard some of the cultists talking about taking the President's son to the island, so I figured that Saddler would be heading there as well."

"Hmmm…I'll be in contact after you meet with Krauser. Don't take too long." She said, before cutting the connection.

Aden sighed, before turning as footsteps approached.

"Hey there beautiful. Need a ride?"


	13. Chapter 13

“ _ANYWAYS_ , do you have anything new for me?” Leona tried to put the entire event with Aden behind her for now, instead leaning on the Merchant’s table. 

“Can’t say I do, Stranga’,” the Merchant said, shaking her head. "Haven’t had much time to find anything new. How are ya’ feelin’ now, Stranga’? Less…” The Merchant motioned with her hands, and Leona sighed.

“Yeah, I’m better. I won’t bit your head off again. Sorry about that…I’m just…stressed.”.

“It’s understandable, Stranga’. I’ll be around when I have somethin’ new, Stranga’. Be safe.”

“You too.” With a last wave, Leona walked out of the room and past another typewriter. Pushing open the door, she walked into an opulent dining room.

As gorgeous as it looked, it unsettled her. Something was seriously wrong with the castle, and even a place as nice and relaxing as the dining room was, it still gave her the creeps. Especially when the only door she could see so far was blocked with an iron gate.

“No way through here…” she muttered, before looking to her right. There was another door, and that one was locked as well. And no matter how many times she rammed her shoulder into it, it refused to open.

Finally, she huffed, giving up on it, and returning to the dining room. Surely there was something in there that’d tell her where to go…unless she really was stuck in the area with the maze.

“Fuck, I hope not,” she muttered to herself, as a bell on a counter caught her eye. Ringing it, she prepared to make a joke about bad hotel service just for the sake of making it, when the board in the back flipped.

“…okay then.” 

Reaching to her back, Leona unhooked her rifle, and peering through the scope could see one very odd thing. Of all the food painted on the board, the bottle of wine appeared to be real…

With barely a second thought, she pulled the trigger. The bottle exploded, and Leona was rewarded with the sound of a barrier rising into the ceiling.

“…fucking puzzles,” she muttered, reloading the gun before placing it back on her back. She’d thought Raccoon had been bad, but it looked like Spain was worse. Hell, the damn castle was already worse than the police station, and she’d thought that place was the fucking worst.

With a sigh, she walked through the now opened door, and really shouldn’t have been surprised when a cage slammed down around her.

“Oh god _damn_ -“ she dived to the side as 6 or so of the cultists jumped down into the cage with her, followed by another one of the fuckers with the claws. “Fuck!”

Even though she knew he’d hone right in on her voice and whatever noises she was making, Leona spun, pulling out her handgun and shooting the lock off the cage door with a bang.

Behind her, she could hear the blinded man roar, and she sprinted out of there, ignoring the other enemies, shoving the door on the other side of the room open with her shoulder, before slamming it shut.

Okay, so she wasn’t going to be going back THAT way…

Shaking her head, she looked across the way, seeing a door, but no real way to get to it. As she walked forwards, she found herself looking at a few options. A large gate below her, but it was slammed down. The door to her right, which was locked. And the lever beside the gate.

“…well it’ll either let me get to the door, or it’ll flood the area with…I dunno, giant spiders,” she muttered, jumping down. There were three cultists down there, and despite their best attempts, Leona was easily able to dispatch them. 

“Here goes nothing…” With a last look around herself, she pulled the lever, and watched as the gate didn’t move. 

“…what the fuck? Goddamnit…” 

And that was when the floor behind her began to move. Jumping, she turned and watched as a segment began to rise, forming a bridge that led to the door. 

“That makes a hell of a lot more sense,” she grumbled, heading to the ladder. 

Of course as she reached the top, more of the cultists swarmed in, and she pulled off her shotgun, ready to clear herself a path across.

“Out of my fucking way,” she repeated to herself as she shot, all too aware of her dwindling ammo reserves. If she didn’t find Ash soon, she was going to be fighting everything with her knife.

Reaching the other door, she hesitated, then went to the right. She should check the other room, after all…

And she was rewarded. The first thing she saw was a small pile of coins which she shoveled into her pack, before her eyes landed on a case in the middle of the room.

A goddamn RPG. And it was just sitting there, waiting for her.

And damn did she ever want it. Without a second thought, she jumped down to it, breaking the glass around the case with her elbow. 

There was ammo and grenades in it as well, and Leona took the time to reload everything, make sure she was as ready as possible. Then she turned to the rocket launcher.

“…I have no fucking room for this. There’s no goddamn way I can take this with me,” she told herself, even as she picked it up. “I can’t carry this with me.”

But damnit, she was going to try.

Another set of stairs led to the locked door, but one hit with the butt of her gun unlocked it, and she crossed over to the next door. 

Opening it led her into a hallway, and after climbing a short set of stairs, she almost cried out in joy.

_‘If those blue torches mean what I think they mean…’_

She jogged forwards, and beamed at the Merchant.

“Oh, I’m so glad it’s you,” she said, setting the RPG on the table between them. “I have a favour to ask of you.”

“Oh?” the Merchant cocked her head to the side, giving Leona a look. “And what is this favour, Stranga’?”

“I found this, and I really want to keep it. But…I have no damn room for it, and I don’t feel like I’ll need to right away. Can you possibly hold onto it for me? Like, I don’t wanna sell it, I just…does that make sense?”

The Merchant nodded. “Of course, Stranga’. I can hold on to it for ya’. How’s the gun treatin’ ya?” She motioned to Leona’s handgun, and Leona shrugged. 

“It’s pretty good. Why?”

The Merchant held out her hand. “Here- I’ll upgrade it a bit for ya, Stranga’. I’ll give ya a first timer discount too, ehehe.”

After a second, Leona shrugged and passed over the gun, and after a few moments, a handful of coins as well. The Merchant looked them over, pushed a few back, and turned away. 

After a few more minutes, she turned back to Leona, and handed her the gun. “I modified it a bit, Stranga’. It’s more accurate now, and you’ll find it packs more of a punch, Stranga’.”

Leona looked it over, before nodding. “Thanks.”

“Not a problem, Stranga’. Thank you.”

The Merchant turned away again, and Leona took that as a sign that she was finished shopping. 

With one last, longing look at the RPG, she turned, pushing through the door. 

At first nothing caught her eye or ear, until the door behind her opened again.

“Leona! Finally, I found you. I got-“ Leona turned, a smile blooming on her face. She hadn’t found Ash yet, but she had found Louisa. The smile faded into a horrified look as Louisa stumbled, gasped, and something burst from her chest.

The first thing Leona though was that it was G, until Saddler walked into view, some kind of large claw snaking it’s way from under her robes and into Louisa’s chest.

The woman gasped and choked as the appendage flung her to the ground, and Leona ran to her. 

“Why, Madam Kennedy…thank you for returning my sample to me,” the cult leader said with a large smile, and Leona looked up from where she was crouched. 

“I’m going to fucking _KILL_ you Saddler-“ she snarled, instantly regretting not bringing the RPG with her. One hit and she’d wipe the smug look from the old bag’s face.

Saddler only laughed. “I think I’ll leave you to Salazar. She should be here soon, to clean you up. Now, if you’d excuse me…” she turned, leaving the exact same way Leona and Louisa had entered, and it was only Louisa’s grip on her hand that kept Leona from running after her.

“I- Leona,” she began to cough, and Leona pressed her hands down on the wound, knowing with a sinking heart that she wouldn’t be able to save her.

“Shh…don’t talk.” Still, she was going to try.

Louisa shook her head a little. “No, I…I was a researcher…hired by Saddler…she found out what…what I was up to…” she laughed, a weak laugh, and Leona could feel the blood soaking into her pants beneath her. 

“I…I got you those pills. Take them…they’ll…suppress the parasite…I’m sorry…” Leona shook her head in denial, feeling Louisa’s hands go slack, the laboured breathing stop. 

“No…no damn it…” she whispered to the dead woman, squeezing the lifeless hand in her own. “Goddamnit…”

Saddler was going to pay, she was sure of that.

Standing, she walked to where Louisa had dropped a pill bottle, and picked it up. The pills inside didn’t look like anything other than generic pain medication, but even if Louisa had worked for Saddler, Leona trusted her.

“Hey! Hey, shit, is that you, Leona?!” 

Leona rushed to the banister, and almost cried with relief. Ash! And he was…well, mostly safe.

“Ash! Okay, gimmie a sec…I’m going to get you out of there!” Looking around, she couldn’t see any levers, and all the doors were locked.

Shit.

“Okay! I need you to stay still for me, yeah? I’m going to shoot you out of there!” she yelled down to him, and even without the rifle scope to her eye, she could see the confused look on Ash’s face.

“You’re going to WHAT?!” he yelled back to her, before moving as far over as possible, and taking great pains not to move.

The first shot was the trickiest, but after a few minutes, Ash was standing there, free of his restraints.

“Okay, now what?” he asked, and Leona shrugged. 

“I’m not sure- I can’t really jump down to you, and all the doors up here are locked. Are there any down there?” she asked, hoping she would actually be able to get to Ash.

“Yeah…there’s one, but it’s locked!”

Just as Ash said that, Leona heard something grinding, before Ash swore.

“More of those robed freaks down here! Fuck off! I’m not coming with you!”

Her rifle back up, Leona began to snipe at the cultists as Ash beat back the ones that got too close with a chair, then a candle stick.

Finally, after a few minutes, Ash leapt forwards, grabbing something off of one of the dead bodies.

“I’ve got a key- wait there, I’ll see where this goes!”

And before Leona could say anything, he was gone.


End file.
